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March 30

[media presentation below]

GospelThink

Sunday, March 30, Fourth Sunday of Lent

Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

The Forgiving Father

Prayerthoughts

a. The Pharisees and scribes were judging the people who were listening to Jesus. Do I find myself judging others when I have no way of knowing the truth?

b. What part of Jesus’s story of the Prodigal Son/Forgiving Father is most striking to you and why?

c. Who is the one person in my family, friends or co-workers for whom I have not shown enough forgiveness? What can I do about it?

d. What are some of the actions for which I should accept more personal responsibility rather than blaming someone else?

e. Going through my principal actions the last couple of days, was my motivation one of selfishness?

f. In my life, has there been a moment when “I came to my senses”? Are there some situations in my life right now in which I should look at a different point of view?

g. Are there some situations in my life right now where I should show more compassion?

h. My prayerthoughts…

Today I will read 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, and write an important thought from it.

Some Thoughts on the Liturgy

THE FORGIVING FATHER

+ A couple of years ago, a group of the American Medical Association surveyed a number of general practitioner physicians asking them:

- “what percentage of people that you see in a week have needs that require your medical skills?”

- and the answer was only about 25%

- and when questioned about the remaining higher percentage,

- the doctors insisted that the patients suffered real pain,

- but their problem was not a chemical or physical one

- their problems were psychological

- mentioning things like: anger, pent-up hostilities, refusing to forgive, and negative attitudes to be causes of the pain

- that says that our feelings about ourselves and others and the quality of our relationships may have more to do with how often we get sick than our genes, chemistry, diet or environment

- now, how true that is is arguable, but it is an interesting thought:

- forgiveness and better relationships with others leads to good health

+ Every Christian then should have good health

- because the Gospel today tells us in no uncertain terms that forgiveness is one of our hallmarks because our God is that way

- the God presented to us in the Gospels by Jesus is a forgiving God, a completely forgiving God

+ The story of the Forgiving Father or Prodigal Son makes it very clear that this is so

- as Jesus tells the story, God personified in the father is the one who is searching out the person who has turned away

- and the important theological thought:

- whether the son came to his senses of not, the father was searching, was already forgiving

- and when the son finally did come to his senses, God becomes pro-active

- the father is looking for his son; he is filled with compassion, he runs after him, he embraces him, doesn’t let him finish his prepared speech, immediately calls for a celebration

- and not only that, when the second son becomes angry and sulking, the father, symbolizing our God again, goes out to him, and begs him to come to the celebration

- there can be little doubt from Jesus’ story that our God is a forgiving God, and will forgive as long as we are willing to ask for it

- the Christian religion has to be among the most hopeful of all religions, because all we have to do is to ask God’s forgiveness, and we have it

+ But Jesus did not finish the story

- he deliberately leaves the listener with the questions of what the younger brother will do once he sees that his father was so forgiving and what the older son will do after the father talks to him

- the logical consistent thing would be that they will both become forgiving people as well

- anyone who receives the type of forgiveness that is presented by the father in Jesus’s story should become a forgiving person him/herself

+ This is the point of the story, of course

- what about us?

- it is one thing for us to hear the story as Jesus tells us

- but obviously, it should have a personal conclusion: we should become the forgiving people that the sons should have become

- it is a good meditation for us because many of us have not become the all-forgiving people that we should be

- it is the whole purpose of the Sacrament of Reconciliation:

- God has already forgiven us; we go to the Sacrament to remind ourselves that we have further work to do in our own spiritual lives

+ The story is a familiar one, one that we have heard a number of times

- the point must be made as to whether we have really listened or not.

MEDIA PRESENTATION

Movie: "The Peanut Butter Falcon" -- final session

EVERYONE IS IMPORTANT

The Gospel

JOHN 5:2-9a

JOHN 5:2-9a

There is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes. In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat and walk.” Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.

Gospelthink: I pay attention to everyone who needs help. Do I pay attention to the people around me who need the most help?

Zak in the movie "The Peanut Butter Falcon" was a Down's Syndrome young man. He lived in a retirement home in North Carolina where he was cared for by a kind young lady named Eleanor. He dreamed of becoming a professional wrestler and attending the wrestling school of his hero, the Salt Walter Redneck, whose videos he watched obsessively. After a failed escape attempt, he finally sneaked out of the home with the assistance of his elderly roommate. He stowed away on a small fishing boat which Tyler an immature young person who was totally selfish had stolen. After they met, Tyler began to realize who he was, but more importantly for Zak, that Zak was a young person who deserved to be treated with respect and love. Together with Eleanor, he began to understand that Zak was a real person, and not someone who simply should be put away.

There was a young lady in the nursing program of one of our universities who was asked a question on her final exam that she could not answer. She was a conscientious student and was doing quite well in the course and felt good about the exam until the last question. It read: "What is the first name of the maintenance man who works in our building?" Of course, she had seen the maintenance man several times—he was a rather unorthodox man who was never very happy and not friendly, and consequently she had never talked to him.

The young lady handed in her exam paper leaving the question blank, and it was marked “wrong” when she received the exam back. The professor explained something that the young lady never forgot. Her professor said: "In your career of helping people, you will meet many people; all are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say 'hello'." She went up to the maintenance man a couple days later, found out his name, and asked about his family and life, and spoke to him often while she was involved in her Registered Nurse training.

Everyone is important. Of all the characteristics of Jesus, the importance of everyone is basic. He would go into a place in which many sick people were gathered, and pick out one in particular who needed the most help. He was even known to heal all the sick gathered around him because everyone, even the most neglected, was important to him.

This is one of the basics of good living. The fact is that we all have different personalities and all have different ways of looking at things. If we could learn to accept those personalities a little better, our world would turn out to be a little better. In the movie "The Peanut Butter Falcon," Zak knew that he was different, and everyone who met him knew that he was different since he had Down's Syndrome. But Eleanor and later Tyler finally realized that he was someone who had a life and therefore needed to be respected for that life.

Everyone is important. Jesus said it and much of our modern film says it as well.

PRAYER

Good and gracious God, Your Son taught us that everyone in our world is important. It is a lesson that we all must learn, and we need your help to do it better than we are. Be with us, we pray.

+++++

GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT

Theme: Christians must recognize the importance of other people, no matter who they are.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
(session: approximately 45 minutes)
1. What scene during this session of the movie is most striking? Why?
2. In the Gospel, the people believed that the first person to enter the pool would be cured. In your opinion do "miracles" happen in our world? Yes or no and why?
3. In your opinion, what is the most difficult thing in caring for a handicapped person?
4. Granted that everyone is important, are there some people more important than others? Yes or no and why?
5. Who is the most neglected in our society? What can we do to help them?
6. What does the person of Zak in the movie teach us?
7. What does the movie "The Peanut Butter Falcon" teach young people?