Today’s Gospel proclamation is the story of the Prodigal Son. Our Lord Jesus elated this parable when ‘sinners’ and tax collectors approached him, to listen to him while the others stayed away or found fault with his mingling with sinners. In the story of the Prodigal Son, when the younger son was in need and in a foreign country, the man whom he hired himself out to, was not concerned with his background and life story. He took no time in sending the boy directly to the pigsty to earn his living if there was anything at all. When we sin and stray from the Father’s house, it is a different experience with the Lord Jesus. He waits for us to come back to him and break our story to him. In the confessional, he looks forward to listening to the details of our sin and then offers us forgiveness and love. It is his mercy that restores and heals us. While we are yet sinners, he looks at us with a promise of love, waiting for our destiny in him to blossom and break forth. In him we can always have hope.

Prayer: Abba Father, today I choose to return to you with my story and I know that you will infuse me with hope and love. Amen.