Lectio: Fourth Sunday of Lent | Fr. Joseph-Anthony Kress, Fr. Gregory Pine & Fr. Bonaventure Chapman
March 30, 2025
This transcription was generated using AI technology. Please note that there may be errors or inconsistencies.
00:00:00:00 – 00:00:26:01
Unknown
This is Father Joseph Anthony Kress, and this is Father Gregory Pine. This is father Bonaventure Chapman. Welcome to Godsplaining. Thank you for, listening to this episode. Please. Like, comment and subscribe and share this episode with those that you think would enjoy it. And special thanks to all of our supporters through our Patreon. You can find the link to our Patreon in the description and show notes.
00:00:26:01 – 00:00:43:05
Unknown
If you would like to join us with a monthly donation. All right. We are here at the fourth week of lent and getting ready for our Lecio episode here. But before we dive in, I want to kick it over to you, Father Gregory. If you wouldn’t mind, we have, a special, sponsor for today’s episode. We do indeed.
00:00:43:05 – 00:01:01:22
Unknown
And I pulled it up on my picture phone. There it is. Here it is. All right. Thank you. The Master of science and business program at the Catholic University of America. I actually don’t know which one to stress. The Master of science and business program are they’re all equally stressed. You think the master of science and business program.
00:01:02:00 – 00:01:27:21
Unknown
I don’t know what I’m supposed to say at the Catholic University of America, where Father Bonaventure teaches, is a nine month program rooted in Catholic social teaching and virtue centered education, designed for students with liberal arts, Stem and business backgrounds. I think we determined earlier that that accounts for all backgrounds except for sociology. This accelerated in-person program gives each student a comprehensive mastery of business disciplines and equips them to pursue business as a force for good.
00:01:27:23 – 00:01:49:11
Unknown
The Master of Science and Business Program located in Washington, D.C., where we are in fact, it’s across the street from where we live so we can meet in the middle of the road. And High Five has a long history of success, with a 99% record of job placements within five months of graduation. To learn more about this program, go to m sb Dot Catholic Edu.
00:01:49:12 – 00:02:05:17
Unknown
And that’s it. There it is. No good program. Good people over there and so we’re happy. Add a bill on. Yeah. For a super happy fantastic. Yeah. If you wanted to have a taste of the program, I suspect, or something like that. Yeah. Listen to the guest episode with the L.A on Super Habits and read the book and read the book.
00:02:05:17 – 00:02:28:16
Unknown
Yeah. Published by Sofia Press. So here we are. Fourth week of lent, also known as Literary right. One of the two weekends in the year where, we get we have the privilege and opportunity to wear rose. Yeah. Also known as pink. Right. So in reflecting on this uniqueness and the kind of boldness of wearing pink at the altar.
00:02:28:20 – 00:02:52:13
Unknown
Yeah. What? Before we enter the order, what was your most bold outfit of choice or article of clothing? Oh. That’s interesting. I kind of dressed like a homeless person. Yeah. You did, I remember that. Yeah. So actually, a little known fact. My senior year of high school, you know, you have seniors, senior superlatives, like, the most likely to take over the world and most likely to become an astronaut, most likely, blah, blah, blah.
00:02:52:15 – 00:03:13:07
Unknown
I was I was the runner up for best dressed. Oh, wow. And I went to Steubenville and the kind of grunge mentality of bargain shopping really took hold of my psyche. And then I decided that I was going to become a priest in the Dominican. And so things devolved, really came undone. In fact. So I was I was shopping with reckless abandon or not at all, as it were, at the Salvation Army and Gabriel Brothers.
00:03:13:10 – 00:03:33:09
Unknown
Yeah. So I was like, I came into the novitiate with some of those clothes. A lot of which were popular in the mid 90s. So like kind of ocean Pacific type things, which were a blend of magenta and turquoise or teal. Yeah, because I thought they were silly. So I like, wore clothes ironically. But then our novice master forbade me from wearing them even under the habit.
00:03:33:12 – 00:03:54:10
Unknown
Well, you could see the bright like salmon colored and turquoise underneath the habit. I remember those, yeah. So I gave them as Christmas gifts to close friends and never look back. Except when I look back in the beginning of our episodes. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. I were all pink one day, intentionally. So I was, I was wear sport coats.
00:03:54:19 – 00:04:13:04
Unknown
So usually bow ties or ties when I was teaching. And I was given by, one of the students, a pink sport coat. It was a woman’s coat. I think we mentioned this before. And, so we were, you know. Yeah, exactly. On a three year cycle in any case, so I so I had a pink pink sport coat with a little bit, a little bit tight shoulders.
00:04:13:13 – 00:04:29:17
Unknown
But, in any case, you know, what have you and, button on the wrong side. No problem. Totally. But I was go to a wedding of one of my some of our college friends. We had a rehearsal dinner or something. Rehearsal dinner has a dinner, and he dress up for this. And so myself and my dad thought, oh, let’s let’s do pink.
00:04:29:17 – 00:04:45:16
Unknown
Let’s match. Right, which is a pink dress for, for her, no problem. Whereas for me it’s like pink pants, pink shirt, pink tie and a pink coat. And yeah, that was cool. Except, like, I mean, obviously it was a rehearsal for the wedding, and then you had, like, me. So I think, the bride hated me. All right.
00:04:45:21 – 00:05:11:19
Unknown
But thankfully, did you wear pants as a wedding? She hated nice. But thankfully, I was not the most hated member of that experience because R.J owns, our. I don’t want our friend. He, he had he was, he had donned a, like, a lion’s mane of hair at this point, and, and so, so on all the pictures, of course, you’ve got, you know, the groom’s men and such, and he’s just got this flowing mane.
00:05:11:22 – 00:05:29:21
Unknown
Oh, And she hated that, too. So, I think I think I survive because I, I was just, I wasn’t wearing pink for the, you know, the wedding of the wedding itself, or as he kept the main. But you, like, made priorities clear, like, listen, you’re going to try to domesticate our friend just so you know. You may succeed in domesticating him, but you won’t succeed in domesticating us.
00:05:29:22 – 00:05:48:14
Unknown
That’s exactly. Yeah, that might be read. Yeah. Yeah. That’s right. So. Yeah. So pink. Pink suits I think. Yeah. Pink suits. Well yeah. And that’s fitting for the weekend. I think probably my borders outfit, which is something I currently own right now is an inflatable T-Rex, costume that I made donned from time to time when you know, the spirit moves.
00:05:48:14 – 00:06:07:11
Unknown
You get that from, students. Got it for me? No, I, I I find those things hilarious. The videos online of just like, inflatable t-rexes doing just like, normal activities. Like, never seen these videos and I will soon. They’re hilarious. I found them hilarious. And then they, one of my students had one and I was like, can I use it?
00:06:07:11 – 00:06:33:20
Unknown
And they’re like, yeah. And then they got me one for Christmas and now I own one. And just makes appearances randomly. I love that thing. It’s it. Look out. And it never fails to just, like, bring joy and laughter in every situation. Yeah. T-Rex. New York City, ladies and gentlemen, it is indeed you. Kind of like if you’re in a coffee shop and, like, recognize one of your students and then kind of like pointed a word on the page of the book that he or she is reading from, you know, and then it’s a, it’s a smash.
00:06:34:00 – 00:06:53:08
Unknown
Smash bagels in your face. There was a time I was running around grounds at dawn at UVA and it was like the fall. So we’re like throwing leaves up and like all that kind of fun stuff. And I encountered, two Mormon missionaries. And so, as one does, I was like, now’s the time to chat up. So I went straight up to him and he was like, hey guys, what’s up?
00:06:53:09 – 00:07:09:01
Unknown
Let’s talk. And we’re chatting about things and they’re like trying to process exactly what’s happening. I was like, oh yeah, I’m the Catholic priest here. And and one of them before that, I was thinking, you know, this Mormonism stuff sounds a little crazy. Yeah, but then this guy shows up in a Tyrannosaurus Rex costume. It says, do you think you know what?
00:07:09:03 – 00:07:29:08
Unknown
Maybe it’s okay. I don’t. Maybe it’s not the craziest thing we have today. I was like, I give you my business card, but I can’t get it to it. You know, little arms, see a little. I can’t get to it. So I convert. And it was a happy ending for. Oh my gosh. Okay. Fourth Sunday of Lent. We’re looking at cycle C readings.
00:07:29:11 – 00:07:50:05
Unknown
Yeah. So, Father Bonaventure, would you lead us off with the first reading today? Right. So this is a reading from the book of Joshua. The Lord said to Joshua, today I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you. While the Israelites were encamped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they celebrated the Passover on the evening of the 14th of the month.
00:07:50:07 – 00:08:15:17
Unknown
On the day after the Passover, they ate the of the produce of the land in the form of unleavened cakes and parched grain. On that same day, after the Passover, on which they ate of the produce of the land, the manna ceased. No longer was there manna for the Israelites, who that year eight of the yield of the land of Canaan.
00:08:15:19 – 00:08:42:11
Unknown
This is a great passage for later Sunday, because it’s the Sunday we mentioned the rose, and there’s this promise of the future coming fulfillment and the resurrection of Christ through the, and the sort of joy of the resurrection. And we’re not there yet, but we have, again, this little reminder of the that the end is coming. It’s is beautiful in that they’ve been traveling for eating this manna and all this stuff, but now they eat unleavened cakes, from the land where they’re supposed to be.
00:08:42:11 – 00:09:01:11
Unknown
It’s already the land of promise, but it’s not totally continuous. So it’s not like we have. We ate this stuff here, and now we have entirely different food, right? It’s different than the man, but still unleavened cakes and parched grain, like they still take with them the realization of the Passover experience and what God has told them to do.
00:09:01:13 – 00:09:33:03
Unknown
And yet there is this new fulfillment that they’re now integrating with where they’re supposed to be. I take it this is a nice example of how we as Catholics, of course, were resurrection people. But we never forget about the cross. We never forget of our need for redemption. We never forget of Christ’s loving obedience and suffering, the cross for us, such that even our graces in living out the Christian life are cruciform graces in, of course, heaven light, where everything is fully revealed, the true place of the promised land.
00:09:33:05 – 00:09:55:15
Unknown
Still they have a cruciform shape to them, because Christ still has wounds on his flesh. The past is the past, but it’s the past that lives in the present because it’s God who does these things. So this continuity and discontinuity, and in this appropriate sense, I love that fidelity that’s there to the cruciform, to the Passover, to the shape of Christ and his particular graces.
00:09:55:17 – 00:10:18:03
Unknown
And there’s kind of like, overtones here or archetypes here of the sacramental dispensation too. Obviously, when we think man and we think Eucharist, and then people are like, wait, the man is passing away. Well, it’s like because you’ve come into the land of promise. And so too, when we come into the life of heaven, the sacramental dispensation passes away, because there’s no need for signs, because the signs are meant to signify realities.
00:10:18:03 – 00:10:38:00
Unknown
And in heaven you will enjoy the realities in their fullness. So there’s no further need for this kind of mediation. We’ll still have the sacred humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ in heaven. That will be, you know, a sight to behold, something for us to lay hold of. But yeah, the Eucharist will pass away. So, you know, people talk about this in the 20th century and they’re like, worried about idolatry.
00:10:38:00 – 00:10:51:08
Unknown
It’s like, easy does it. The point here isn’t so much to say. Like we shouldn’t worship the Eucharist. The point is to say that we worship the Eucharist with an eye to heaven. That is to say, we partake of the manna with an eye to the promised Land in which we will reap the produce of the Promised Land itself.
00:10:51:08 – 00:11:14:12
Unknown
And we will no longer need to be like in exile or on pilgrimage, because we’ll have come home, we’ll have attain to our destination. I really appreciate how, you present that Father Bonaventure is like. Yeah, the passage isn’t just kind of utilitarian or mechanistic, you know, like there’s a way that the past, like, is actually, assumed into the promise and the the fullness of that promise.
00:11:14:12 – 00:11:53:14
Unknown
Right? It’s like, yeah, they’re in the plains outside of Jericho, and yet they’re still celebrating the Passover. Right. There’s still this like drawing the past into this, the fullness of the promised land whilst. So be mindful of that. And it’s not like, yes, the manna passes away but they’re still eating unleavened cakes. Right. And drawing from the Passover in kind of not, I won’t say adapting it, but like drawing from also being able to stand in the promised land, which was what it was all kind of preparing for, but to not look at our past in kind of a utilitarian, mechanistic, oh, that provided it’s purpose.
00:11:53:14 – 00:12:12:02
Unknown
Now it’s done, put it on the shelf and then move forward. You know, and forget about it. It’s like I’m still mindful of that, recognizing that I may be at its completion or what it was preparing for, but I never, abrogate that in a sense. And we see that with the Lord that he says, I didn’t come to abolish any of this like it came to fulfill it.
00:12:12:04 – 00:12:32:10
Unknown
And part of that fulfillment is being mindful of that and not and being unafraid to draw it into the newness of a full promise or the newness of a new covenant. In that sense. Yeah. And it’s not. And I like this from guard to guard business that the past and the present and the future, God is always present in the sense that the manna is not there to like and to deal with.
00:12:32:10 – 00:12:45:06
Unknown
I’m doing this temporary thing only, and once again, the promised land. Hey, you’re good on your own. You can just do that. You got the food and all this kind of thing. I’ll let you guys, you. You’re good. We go to the desert, we get you out of Egypt. Guys. Okay. I’m good to go. I’ll see you later at some point.
00:12:45:06 – 00:13:00:07
Unknown
No, no, he’s still carrying on. So when they enter this new place with new experiences, the promised land, all of this, they still they. We do what we do. Yeah. You know, we do what we’ve been told. We do what we’ve been given. We’ve do these rituals even though they were given to us under the dispensation of, of sin.
00:13:00:10 – 00:13:19:11
Unknown
Right. But under the sense of, of, of us rejecting and therefore having to be fed in a particular way, we’re now in this promised line. We’re no longer an exile. Yet we still do. We do. We do what we were told to do, because that’s how we know ourselves during that time. And that’s how we want to know ourselves in a new way with this new food, but still has this recognition of what he’s done.
00:13:19:12 – 00:13:44:07
Unknown
And that’s true of like, Exodus 12 and 13 of those three writes described in those pages at the end of the ten plagues, you know, you have the redemption of the firstborn, the circumcision of the sons, and then the Passover celebration for all the children or for all the family. So this idea of like memorialization or commemoration of the marvelous deeds of God, like you say, it’s a persistent feature in the life of the people of God, because that’s the point, is to like, think about God.
00:13:44:11 – 00:14:03:14
Unknown
Yeah, he’s not a ladder that we kick over once we get to the top of the promised land, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, Father Gregory, let’s dive into the second reading. Second letter of Corinthians, a reading from the second letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians. Sometimes I actually miss the, the liturgy of the Word in German from our time in Vietnam.
00:14:03:15 – 00:14:30:21
Unknown
Yeah. It’s like Austin Court interpreted to be, brothers and sisters. Whoever is in Christ is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, new things have come. 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 and Christ, not counting their trespasses against him and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
00:14:30:23 – 00:14:50:04
Unknown
So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God for our sake. He made him to be sin who did not no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. So that’s like one of the most theologically dense texts of all time.
00:14:50:12 – 00:15:27:02
Unknown
So this identification of Christ is a new creation. So you have the first dispensation in creation, the next dispensation of the full dispensation in recreation. But Christ is the exemplar of both, because God, you know, creates through the word in the beginning, and he recreates through the word in the incarnation. But this idea of like no vetoes veto, it comes up a lot in the liturgical tradition of the church that you’ll speak of newness of life, and that gets picked up in the theological tradition of the church where you’re trying to grasp, like, what is it that’s been reintroduced because we had this endowment of original justice, grace, integral nature, these associated privileges of
00:15:27:02 – 00:15:49:06
Unknown
immortality and impossibility, we lost that. And not only, you know, is the state to which we were reduced to kind of privation of our original state. But there are these wounds now in our nature with ignorance and malice and weakness and concupiscence, and with redemption. It’s not as if we are just restored to an Edenic state, the state of our first parents, but were restored to something almost beyond that.
00:15:49:08 – 00:16:08:15
Unknown
Right? And that now it takes place within the narrative that is sacramental dispensation of our incorporation into the Mystical Body and our enjoyment of the full measure of grace. Virtues, gifts of the Holy Spirit in intimacy with Christ. So I return often to this language from Romans, where it speaks of the how much more. It’s like, yeah, you’re looking at Adam and thinking, rough, right?
00:16:08:15 – 00:16:37:17
Unknown
But how much more on account of the fact that we have this sinful solidarity, can we appreciate and unpack this graceful solidarity in Christ? So I think it’s like we’re always on the lookout for the know Vitus V2, for the newness of life. And ultimately, like the horizon is set for us by the resurrection, because it’s in the resurrection that, you know, grace will be fixed and firm in glory that will have by the life of, you know, grace and virtue, that integral nature reconstituted but in a way that can never be diminished, or a way that can never be lost.
00:16:37:19 – 00:17:01:20
Unknown
And then we’ll have, you know, this immortality and impossibility, but in a higher register still, insofar as it’s what kind of like flit like sparks in the stubble, in the mystical body after the general resurrection. And so I think that, like, yeah, there’s, there’s a newness that Christ wants to bring about in our life, and we have to be on the lookout for it in order to acknowledge the ways in which something beautiful, something wonderful is afoot.
00:17:01:22 – 00:17:26:18
Unknown
I think as as Paul’s writing this, he’s he’s picking up on that, right? He he’s saying what whoever is in Christ is a new creation. And then the common thread that he keeps, like kind of coming back to again is what does this newness look like? It’s about reconciliation. You know, he he talks about the ministry of reconciliation, how the entire world is reconciled in Christ and in this, in this new dispensation, this new recreation.
00:17:26:18 – 00:18:02:04
Unknown
What are we talking about? Well, it’s reconciliation and not just of a particular family, a particular tribe, a kingdom or a particular people. It’s of the entirety of the creation. It’s in Christ. All things have been reconciled. So this is kind of a hallmark of this new dispensation. The hallmark of this new creation is that all things and all people are reconciled both to God and to each other, like and that’s he keeps coming back to this element of reconciliation as being kind of the hallmark of the new creation, the new dispensation.
00:18:02:07 – 00:18:22:02
Unknown
Yeah. That’s it’s which is, a recreation in the sense that it’s it’s recreating what was originally the unity of the human race, Adam and Eve, and with union with God’s, the vertical relation, the horizontal relationship such that it’s it’s newness, but it’s newness in a particular way, not just, you know, what’s going to be like new powers, walking through walls, this kind of stuff, I mean, fine, fine, fine.
00:18:22:02 – 00:18:40:05
Unknown
But all for the end of reconciliation, of the end of union. In love with love of God, love neighbor. Right. And the second thing is that the newness. What is this newness? Well, it’s Christ, he is the newness. So it’s I like this that he brings up this new creation stuff. You might think, oh, what about me? What about the world?
00:18:40:05 – 00:19:09:13
Unknown
What about the new things? But he continues to tether it to Christ like, don’t let go of this thing. The newness is right there. The newness that is going to happen is in Christ Himself. He is the newness. And we’re only new insofar as we image and reflect him and live in him. So there is a kind annuity, and the newness is in a sense already present, and that we don’t want to wander away, because if we if we do wander away from him in this newness, then actually we get to the oldness, right?
00:19:09:15 – 00:19:30:15
Unknown
Not to being dependent on Christ, not image in Christ, not related to Christ, not, you know, in the body of Christ. And that was the oldness, that was the oldness of the age of sin and such. It’s the newness is is actually attaching yourself to Christ as the new man, the new Adam. Yeah. All right. We’re going to turn our attention to the gospel for this weekend.
00:19:31:19 – 00:19:58:13
Unknown
It’s from the Gospel of Luke, the 15th chapter. Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus. But the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, this man welcomes sinners and eats with them. So to them Jesus addressed this parable. Man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father, father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.
00:19:58:15 – 00:20:24:11
Unknown
So the father divided the property between them. After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings and set off to a distant country, where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation. When he had freely spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he found himself in dire need. So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him to his farm to tend the swine.
00:20:24:13 – 00:20:47:00
Unknown
And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed. But nobody gave him any. Coming to his senses, he thought, how many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food to eat? But here I am dying from hunger. I shall get up and go to my father, and I shall say to them, father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
00:20:47:01 – 00:21:10:18
Unknown
I no longer deserve to be called your son. Treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers. So he got up and went back to his father. While he was still a long way off. His father caught sight of him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him. His son said to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
00:21:10:20 – 00:21:32:04
Unknown
I no longer deserve to be called your son, but his father ordered his servants, quickly bring the finest robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Take the fattened calf and slaughter it. Then let us celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead and has come to life again.
00:21:32:06 – 00:21:58:07
Unknown
He was lost and has been found. Then the celebration began. Now the older son had been out in the field, and on his way back. As he neared the house, he heard the sound of music and dancing. He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean. The servant said to him, your brother has returned, and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf, because he has him back safe and sound.
00:21:58:09 – 00:22:21:08
Unknown
He became angry, and when he refused to enter the house, his father came out and pleaded with him. He said to his father in reply, look, all these years I served you, and not once did I disobey your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns, who swallowed up your property with prostitutes for him?
00:22:21:08 – 00:22:41:23
Unknown
You slaughtered the fattened calf. He said to him, my son, you are here with me always. Everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice. Because your brother was dead and has come to life again. He was lost and has been found.
00:22:42:01 – 00:23:03:07
Unknown
So it’s a very long gospel. Very famous gospel. Familiar, I think, with all of us. And, it’s probably, I don’t know, would you say it’s the most popular parable? Yeah, I think so. Probably the most well known. Most well known. I think most parable is really good Shepherd, good shepherds up there, mustard seeds. But that’s just like, that’s not even a parable.
00:23:03:07 – 00:23:28:07
Unknown
That’s just a line, anyway, but very familiar for, Catholics and Christians and non-Catholics and Christians alike. I think it’s probably up there as the most popular, and there many it’s it’s a long parable and there’s a lot to break down in, in different ways to for that. The, return of the Prodigal Son, which is, the book by Henry now and very famous, beautiful work.
00:23:29:07 – 00:24:03:09
Unknown
Spent so many different times with each figure in this parable. Inspired many different paintings and all of that. The, the one aspect that I at this point that grabs my attention in this is the father. The father in the parable, and how he interacts with both of his sons. He treats he treats them very similarly. He moves towards them, you know, at the sight of his son, who is contrite at the sight of the son who has returned.
00:24:03:11 – 00:24:44:15
Unknown
He runs to him, right? He runs out, upon the streets and and meets him along the way, right into the obstinate son, the angry son who refuses to draw near and digs his heels in the ground. The father moves towards him, you know, and I just love reflecting on the disposition of the father that moves towards his children and does not care where he where that child may be, whether they’re sorrowful and trying their hardest to stumble and claw their way back to the the home.
00:24:44:17 – 00:25:12:07
Unknown
Or is it the one who is refusing to enter in, is sitting there in anger? The father can, so he treats both of them the same way. He moves towards them. And seeing that yes, the father in the parable represents our Heavenly Father, who in many respects doesn’t really care where he finds us, whether we’re digging our heels in anger and in pettiness, or we have trying to claw our ways back to him.
00:25:12:12 – 00:25:37:00
Unknown
He moves towards us as well. So upon seeing us, he moves back to us. And I, I’ve always found that as a comfort, and also a deep encouragement, that the father moves towards his children constantly. Yeah. That’s beautiful. I hadn’t thought about. You know, the father isn’t a the figure of this parable that I ever really focus on.
00:25:37:01 – 00:25:50:14
Unknown
Oh, yeah. And the younger son is not that I don’t take him that to be that interesting. I suspect a lot of, you know, maybe people do. I don’t know, I think you probably I don’t know if you if there’s, you know, three kinds of people in the world. The father’s younger son, the older son, or the older brother.
00:25:50:14 – 00:26:08:13
Unknown
But, I, you know, I tend to immediately think of the older brother. And this is a parable. I mean, part of it said when Jesus said something like this and he comes up, these parables, we what can you say? You know, and it’s it’s like anything you say, it’s going to be down downhill from this. It’s it presents itself in luminous clarity.
00:26:08:13 – 00:26:28:18
Unknown
You could say, it’s meant to like you know, in rapture, you for a moment about truths and, and you can delve into and look at all the fine grained details of in Rembrandt’s paint. You can get into this thing, but also sometimes nice to take a, a higher view or more distant view from what is the one point like, what is the.
00:26:28:19 – 00:26:57:06
Unknown
And there’s probably a couple in here, but the one point that strikes me at the end of the day with the elder brother is do I does he do I care about the good or the good for me as meted out to me in some fashion? Do I care about mercy or do I care about justice? Like at the end of the day, when I see myself as is the elder brother character and think, you know, do they deserve the lavish love of the father?
00:26:57:06 – 00:27:19:21
Unknown
Do they deserve, you know, whatever it might be, whether it be natural gifts or supernatural salvation or something like, have they? Have they labored in the vineyard? Not that I have, but you know, more than that and blah blah blah. Like it’s a question. The heart for me is, do I, do I really love the good. Because if I love the good and I want to share it, if it’s shareable, now might be the sense of like something so good that if you shared it destroys it.
00:27:19:21 – 00:27:38:12
Unknown
Right. Like I love this turtle you know quick divide it. No you know can’t do that. But there’s some some goods are not shareable in the same way, but God is a shareable good, right? He is his grace and his mercy and his love, and his life is shareable in himself and with us because of Christ. So I’m not gonna run out of it.
00:27:38:14 – 00:27:58:00
Unknown
It’s it’s totally shareable. It’s meant to be shared. The desire of every human heart is meant to be this so. But do I appreciate that? Or do I feel like it’s a zero sum game? And if I let that guy in, I’m going to be the my good is going with the father is gonna be diminished because at least his attention will be direct to this other person who he ought not direct it to.
00:27:58:02 – 00:28:18:12
Unknown
So it’s a real shot in the in the heart for me, because it does remind me how far I’ve not yet come, to realizing that it is the divine charity that I should focus on. It’s the good to be shared that can be shared and shared and shared and actually redound to me even greater. And since I can have more good by having more of the kingdom together, that’s not a loss for me.
00:28:18:14 – 00:28:37:13
Unknown
But there is this. The elder brother. He has he has a purchase on me, I reckon. I recognize that man. I don’t recognize that younger son. I don’t really recognize the father. I ought to get older, brother. But I recognize him, I know him, I’ve seen him before. Yeah. In that noun book that you mentioned, which I just read this past May.
00:28:37:13 – 00:29:01:12
Unknown
Maybe. Yeah. Like a year ago. I was reading it for the most part in Scotland on a visit to the University of Edinburgh in the University or Saint Andrew’s University. I forget which way that’s supposed to be said. But it was like I was reading this book about the Eucharist, and, the prodigal son came up as a kind of paragraph paradigm for our created status and our acceptance of our created status.
00:29:01:14 – 00:29:16:18
Unknown
But it’s interesting, like the way that now and sets it forward. And, you know, he admits that there are a variety of energies that one might take on the parable, but that you can treat it developmentally in the sense that you can identify with the younger son and with the older son and with the father in due course, and especially as a priest.
00:29:17:06 – 00:29:39:06
Unknown
You know, he brought this out in a cool way where he’s saying, like, I was so fixated for a certain time on my own kind of sinfulness and my own need for God’s mercy, that I became, in a certain sense, obsessed with the vantage of the younger son. But then you know, after have many years of formation and ministry, I came to recognize a certain similitude to or likeness with the elder son.
00:29:40:09 – 00:30:03:04
Unknown
And like both in effect, represent a different kind of sinful status. But there are different temptations by which were confronted at various points in life, thinking ourselves overly so we can wounded or thinking ourselves unduly so we can wonder whatever it is. But he said, at a certain point he was having a conversation with this woman, with whom he was in some apostolic setting, and he was, you know, like going back and forth to the younger son, an elder son.
00:30:03:06 – 00:30:17:05
Unknown
And she just looked at him and said, like, it’s it’s time for you to be the father. You know, like it’s time for you to be the father, because that’s the thing. I think at a certain point in our Christian lives, you know, we’re always going to be healing. We’re always going to be growing. We always stand in need of further formation and ongoing conversion.
00:30:17:05 – 00:30:36:08
Unknown
That’s all true. But like, none of that poses sufficient obstacle or hindrance just to kind of like being about the business, you know, and I think especially in our lives as priests, we are consecrated for worship, you know, priests and religious especially. But I think, like at the end of the day, some people will say like, well, like priesthood is more for the people and like religious life, it’s more for you.
00:30:36:08 – 00:30:54:13
Unknown
It’s like neither of them are for anyone other than God. Yeah. And like God will apportion the graces of these things as he sees fit to do. But like when it comes to worship, like worship is kind of like showing up for work. You know, like, I mean, there might be times in your life where you feel it romantic or exotic, but I think most days in your life it’s going to feel like those days are gone.
00:30:54:13 – 00:31:13:06
Unknown
Yeah. The priest showing up to just, like, slaughter a bunch of animals, you know, with a bunch of blood, split them up. But the birds. But there’s a sense in which, like, as a father, you know, like your call. Just to to show up and to offer the work of worship and to be present to the people of God insofar as that falls within your pastoral care or whatever else.
00:31:13:08 – 00:31:36:17
Unknown
And you can adapt that for different states of life. But we need not be overly kind of invested or even interested in our physical well-being, emotional equilibrium, or like psychological, I don’t know, homeostasis. I mean, those are all good things. And we need to address the obstacles and hindrances which pose themselves to our flourishing. But like at the end of the day, spiritually speaking, it’s just, you know, like you just keep choosing God today, tomorrow, the next day.
00:31:36:17 – 00:31:51:01
Unknown
Yeah. And I like the the image of the worship and tying in with the, with the father figure is you could sing, you know, a mission. Once we grow to this farther than just go out and help the people and bring them in sort of thing. But of course, worship and and interceding for for the lost. Right.
00:31:51:01 – 00:32:08:22
Unknown
So are both both younger and elder brothers is an act of the priesthood. Right. And we all have priesthood believers in some fashion. Are praying for and interceding through our own devotions and such. But especially for the priest is interesting for God, for mercy, for these people, because it’s not you that’s going to reconcile them. It’s God is going to reconcile this person giving the grace he gives them.
00:32:09:04 – 00:32:29:04
Unknown
And our worship of him is in a part of it, is the glory that he is doing. The reconciling action we heard from that second reading in Christ really cares about reconciliation. This is the business of God and he wants to share that business with us as fathers, just as he is the father. Reconciling those through Christ. Yeah.
00:32:29:06 – 00:32:50:20
Unknown
Well, to our listeners, thank you for joining us, for this weekend’s, episode, looking at the readings for this fourth the fourth week of lent, fourth Sunday of Lent. As always, you can find more information on this podcast at our website, Godsplaining, where you’ll find links to merch and upcoming, in-person live events that will be hosting.
00:32:51:08 – 00:33:12:04
Unknown
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00:33:12:06 – 00:33:31:10
Unknown
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