Taste and see the goodness of the Lord. The Lenten season is characterized by a call to conversion, that is, a call to turn away from sin in order to believe in the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lent is a time when members of the Church are called to the awareness of who they are vis-à-vis God. When on Ash Wednesday we are reminded that we are dust and unto dust we will return (one of the two formulas used during the imposition of the ashes on our foreheads), the reason is not to remind us of our mortality or even to make us feel “worthless.” Rather, those words are directed at creating (or awakening) inside of us the awareness that our human condition is affected by sin. In addition, as part of the Lenten observance, we have always been encouraged to engage in works of mercy and other practices that are aimed at fostering self-control. But even as we do this, the Church would not want us to get so much absorbed into the activities that we make ourselves (and what we do) the focus of our Lenten observance. Instead, our Lenten observances should be an expression of our desire for conversion prompted by the knowledge that the Lord is kind and compassionate, patient and abounding in mercy. This is the message that Jesus wanted to pass across in the parable of the Prodigal Son about which we hear in this Sunday’s Gospel Reading. The parable of the prodigal son is among the stories told by Jesus that, if we pay close attention to them, will leave us with more questions than answers. While the three characters in the parable are not strange to us, perhaps it is the unusual way the story ends that shocks us. We totally understand the desire of the younger son to be given his share of inheritance so that he can decide how to make use of it. We might also understand the father’s decision to open his arms and welcome back the younger son even after he had squandered his share of inheritance. The only area where we might have an issue is the father’s decision to welcome the younger son the way he did. Was the father tacitly approving of the son’s wasteful spending of his share? Was the father not going to demand some answers? Was the father not going to demand some accountability from the younger son? Together with the older son, we might also ask the father, if in deed he recognized and appreciated his loyalty (the older son), why he had not treated him the way he was now treating the son who had rebelled. Was the father not feeling obliged to act justly towards the older son? The parable of the prodigal son was Jesus’ response to the self-proclaimed righteous group of Pharisees and scribes who were not happy with the sight of Jesus mingling freely with people who were considered sinners. They were not happy that Jesus was stooping so low as to allow the perceived sinners to join him at table and in fellowship. If they had earlier harbored doubts about Jesus’ credibility both as a teacher and a prophet, his actions on this particular day might have well served to confirm those doubts. Jesus should have known that by allowing the “sinners” to share in his meal, he was implicitly putting his seal of approval on their perceived sinful way of life. It is safe to say that Jesus did not approve of sin, otherwise his message at the beginning of his ministry would not have been one of repentance (cf. Mark 1:15). However, unlike the self-proclaimed righteous Pharisees and scribes, Jesus, like his Father, does not will that any of his brothers and sisters die in sin. As both our Creator and Father, God’s joy is that nothing of what God has created is lost (God is filled with sadness when we stray from the path marked out for us). Because of the free will with which we were created, God can never force us to do anything, even when God sees us going astray. And while watching us go astray definitely saddens God’s heart, God will patiently wait for us to come back to God, for we belong with God. We can decide to stay apart from God, but we do so at our own detriment for the more we stay away, the worse our situation becomes. God is the source of life. Anything that separates us from God separates us from life. God is interested in us being fully alive (the glory of God is the human person fully alive [St. Irenaeus]). Like the prodigal father, God will never count our sinful actions against us if we come to our senses and repent of them. Like the prodigal father, God awaits our coming back to God with longing beyond all telling. The parable of the prodigal son was told by Jesus to remind the Pharisees and scribes (and us) of who God is and how God relates to us. It is a story that Jesus uses to remind us, in case we get to forget, of God’s big heart, a heart that can never be wounded by our sins. It is a story that Jesus uses to remind us of the outstretched arm of God that is always ready to embrace us and welcome us back home. God will go to great lengths to welcome us back into the fold. May we take advantage of this knowledge and use these days of Lent to unite ourselves even more to the Lord.