Lectio Divina
25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, September 15th, 2019
Luke 16:1-13
Meaningful Quote:
Though Jesus Christ was rich, yet he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become
Commentary: “In chapter 15 of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus tells three parables about losing, finding, and rejoicing. The outcasts of society, the taxpayers, and the sinners approach Jesus eager to hear what he has to say. In Luke’s Gospel, hearing is a sign of conversion. The Pharisees and scribes, still suspicious of Jesus, complain about him associating with sinners. So he tells them these three parables. In the first story, the parable of The Lost Sheep, the shepherd leaves behind the 99 sheep to search for the 1 lost sheep. When he finds it, the shepherd rejoices not alone as in Matthew’s version, but with friends and neighbours. In the same way, God rejoices more over 1 sinner who repents—like the outcasts who have come to hear Jesus—than over the 99 righteous like the Pharisees and scribes.
The second story, about a poor woman who will not stop searching until she finds her lost coin, makes the same point. Why are the Pharisees complaining? They should rejoice when the lost are found.
Finally we come to what is probably the most memorable parable in the Gospels, the story we know as The Prodigal Son. Just as in The Lost Sheep and The Lost Coin, this story (found only in Luke) is really about the seeker. The loving father is at the centre of this parable. Even though his son runs off with his father’s inheritance and squanders the money, the father waits for him, hoping for his return. Upon his son’s return, the father, “full of compassion,” runs out to embrace and forgive him before the son can utter one word of repentance. At this point the rejoicing begins.
The parable does not end there. Rather, it makes one more point about the older son’s reaction. This son who never left, just like the Pharisees and scribes who feel they are righteous, refuses to enter his father’s house to join in the rejoicing. He has served his father. He has obeyed him. Perhaps it was not out of love. The father’s response teaches us that God’s care and compassion extend to the righteous and sinner alike. When we are lost, God doesn’t wait for our return. He actively seeks us out. And when the lost are found, how could we not celebrate and rejoice?” https://www.loyolapress.com/our-catholic-faith/liturgical-year/sunday-connection
Questions:
1. Have you ever lost something that you searched for like the lost sheep or lost coin, and did you find it?
2. Which of the characters do you identify with most in the parable of the prodigal son? Why?
Visio Divina
Teachers, you may want to go through this process and adapt the prompts to lead students in this process.
1. Contemplate prayerfully The Return of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt
2. What do you see? What do you feel? What questions would you ask the artist?
3.Read or listen to the Gospel passage: Luke 15: 11-32
4. Put yourself in the scene by imagining that you are there. What questions would you have for the prodigal? elder brother? father
5. Read an interpretation of the message of the painting such as: https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/02/06/99503/ or https://review.catechetics.com/inspired-through-art-return-prodigal-son-rembrandt-van-rijn-c-1668 You may want to refer to Fr. Henri Nouwen’ Return of the Prodigal: a Story of Homecoming. If you are leading students in this Visio Divina, prepare three age-appropriate ideas that you want to share with them.
6. Contemplate the painting again, prayerfully expressing gratitude for any new questions and/or insights that you may have given.
For more on Visio Divina see CARFLEO’s post.