There is much wisdom shared about the sense of hearing.  Make time to listen.  Practice active listening.  Put on your listening ears.  Tell me your story.  We all know the value of being present through careful listening.  Yet there are many times when we are not very good at hearing what is being said.  Perhaps we have too many distractions.  Perhaps we suspect that we might need to hear something we don’t want to hear.  Perhaps the story is so familiar that we believe we have already heard it.

Today’s Gospel from Luke is the story of the prodigal son.  My initial reaction today to this parable from Jesus was that I knew where this story was going to take me as I have heard it so many times in my life.  I was ready to tap into my dutiful oldest child resentment of the younger sibling who wasted his inheritance.  Yet, I felt some gentle urging from God to listen deeper.  As I prepared to read today’s gospel again, I prayed for the Grace to deeply listen to the word of God.

My attention was immediately captured by the taunts of Jesus from the Pharisees and scribes:  “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”  This left me curious to learn more.  Rather than focusing on a hard working son who despite doing everything right never gets a party, I was overwhelmed with the joy expressed by the father who sees his wayward son metaphorically come back to life.  There could be no better reason for a joyful celebration.  What a perfect message of conversion for this Lenten season.

Paul supports this message of conversion in his letter to Corinthians as he teaches about reconciliation:

And all this is from God,
who has reconciled us to himself through Christ
and given us the ministry of reconciliation,
namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ,
not counting their trespasses against them
and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Learning about the experiences of the younger son who spent his entire inheritance on pleasure, I come to understand there have been many gifts in my life that I have sinfully squandered.  As he desperately realizes that the animals he is caring for have more to eat than he does, I make space for my shame and face the moments in my life when I have come to a breaking point. And as I hear the taunts of the Pharisees and scribes, I wonder when have I tried to live like Jesus lived and opened my heart to sinners with joy and without judgment?  As the younger son returns home to his father with contrition and no expectations, I feel an abiding trust in God’s love for me.  This trust in God’s love is grounded in the wisdom from the Psalm calling us to Taste and See the Goodness in the Lord.