OXYGEN

14 Mar – Fourth Sunday of Lent
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Joshua 5:9-12

The Lord said to Joshua, ‘Today I have taken the shame of Egypt away from you.’ Hence that place has been called Gilgal until now.

The Israelites pitched their camp at Gilgal and kept the Passover there on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening in the plain of Jericho. On the morrow of the Passover they tasted the produce of that country, unleavened bread and roasted ears of corn, that same day. From that time, from their first eating of the produce of that country, the manna stopped falling. And having manna no longer, the Israelites fed from that year onwards on what the land of Canaan yielded.
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2 Corinthians 5:17-21

For anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old creation has gone, and now the new one is here. It is all God’s work. It was God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the work of handing on this reconciliation. In other words, God in Christ was reconciling the world to himself, not holding men’s faults against them, and he has entrusted to us the news that they are reconciled. So we are ambassadors for Christ; it is as though God were appealing through us, and the appeal that we make in Christ’s name is: be reconciled to God. For our sake God made the sinless one into sin, so that in him we might become the goodness of God.
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Luke 15:1-3.11-32

The tax collectors and the sinners were all seeking the company of Jesus to hear what he had to say, and the Pharisees and the scribes complained. ‘This man’ they said ‘welcomes sinners and eats with them.’ So he spoke this parable to them:

He also said, ‘A man had two sons. The younger said to his father, “Father, let me have the share of the estate that would come to me.” So the father divided the property between them. A few days later, the younger son got together everything he had and left for a distant country where he squandered his money on a life of debauchery.

‘When he had spent it all, that country experienced a severe famine, and now he began to feel the pinch, so he hired himself out to one of the local inhabitants who put him on his farm to feed the pigs. And he would willingly have filled his belly with the husks the pigs were eating but no one offered him anything. Then he came to his senses and said, “How many of my father’s paid servants have more food than they want, and here am I dying of hunger! I will leave this place and go to my father and say: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as one of your paid servants.” So he left the place and went back to his father.

‘While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity. He ran to the boy, clasped him in his arms and kissed him tenderly. Then his son said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son.” But the father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the calf we have been fattening, and kill it; we are going to have a feast, a celebration, because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and is found.” And they began to celebrate.

‘Now the elder son was out in the fields, and on his way back, as he drew near the house, he could hear music and dancing. Calling one of the servants he asked what it was all about. “Your brother has come” replied the servant “and your father has killed the calf we had fattened because he has got him back safe and sound.” He was angry then and refused to go in, and his father came out to plead with him; but he answered his father, “Look, all these years I have slaved for you and never once disobeyed your orders, yet you never offered me so much as a kid for me to celebrate with my friends. But, for this son of yours, when he comes back after swallowing up your property – he and his women – you kill the calf we had been fattening.”

‘The father said, “My son, you are with me always and all I have is yours. But it was only right we should celebrate and rejoice, because your brother here was dead and has come to life; he was lost and is found.”’
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I no longer deserve to be called your son.

Some time ago, I experienced friction with my mum where we both felt that the other was very calculating. I remember complaining to my brother about these issues. After listening to me, my brother, in his love and wisdom, gently told me this: “Dad and mum have given everything to us. They have given us the best of everything without counting the cost of what they have spent on us since the day we were conceived. It is a privilege for us to be generous with them because we can never repay them for all that they have done for us.”

These words have slowly been changing my heart and my relationship with my mum. Like the youngest son in today’s Gospel, I had a tendency to view our relationship as a transaction (e.g., you do this for me, and I do that for you. Whatever it is, what we do for each other must balance out somehow).

But my brother is right. My parents have given me everything. They have given me their youth, their energy, their time, their love, their protection, their guidance, and ultimately – they have given me their lives. There is no way I can ever repay them. How foolish I was to think that I could somehow “balance” out what I have received and repay them in the same amount. How foolish I was to think that I could “earn” all that had been lavished on me.

It is this same ignorance (and pride) that I have applied to my relationship with God. So often, I have been afraid of receiving God’s abundant blessings because every time God did something nice for me, I felt that I needed to “repay” Him back by being an even better person. For example, I might increase my prayer time or tell Him that I love Him a few more times. Yet, all these efforts drained me for they were not motivated out of freedom and love, but were motivated by a wrong desire to “earn” or “be made worthy” of God’s love and blessings.

As we can see in today’s Gospel, for most of us, our parents (i.e., our earthly parents and our Heavenly Father) give themselves completely to us. While we may wish to keep the relationship at a contractual/transactional level (i.e., by showing them that we deserve that love because of certain things we do), this is not the way for a family to live. Families are not defined the way our consumerist society is defined for we cannot buy or earn love. Instead, families are covenantal. In covenantal relationships, it requires the exchange of persons. In other words, we receive our parents completely, and all we can do in response is to give ourselves to them completely – without counting the cost.

Regardless of what we do, we will never “deserve” to be called the sons or daughters of  either our parents or our Heavenly Father. All we can do is to say thank you and to express our gratitude to them through our love  every day. In spite of how well or poorly your earthly parents may have or be treating you, as followers of Christ, what can you do today to give yourself abundantly to (i) God, and (ii) your parents?

(Today’s OXYGEN by Jean Cheng)
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Prayer: Lord, please help me to love my family abundantly so that we can grow to become a family that reflects Your love in this world.

Thanksgiving: We give thanks to the people in our lives who have given themselves to us in abundance.

Upcoming Readings:
Mon, 15 Mar – Isaiah 65:17-21; John 4:43-54
Tue, 16 Mar – Ezekiel 47:1-9.12; John 5:1-16
Wed, 17 Mar – Isaiah 49:8-15; John 5:17-30; Memorial for St Patrick, Bishop
Thu, 18 Mar – Exodus 32:7-14; John 5:31-47; Memorial for St Cyril of Jerusalem, Bishop, Doctor of the Church
Fri, 19 Mar – 2 Samuel 7:4-5.12-14.16; Romans 4:13.16-18.22; Matthew 1:16.18-21.24 or Luke 2:41-51; Solemnity of St Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Sat, 20 Mar – Jeremiah 11:18-20; John 7:40-53
Sun, 21 Mar – Ezekiel 37:12-14; Romans 8:8-11; John 11:1-45; Fifth Sunday of Lent