Laetere Sunday's Gospel: The Prodigal Son

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Laetere Sunday is the 4th Sunday of Lent. Laetere simply means Rejoice or Be glad, as prophesied by Isaiah. Why? One would ask would we rejoice when we are halfway through the season of fasting, corresponding to our Lord Jesus' forty days in the desert? As with Isaiah, that is in anticipation of the Resurrection on Easter Sunday. And our awakening as pilgrims on earth. That is why our Lord gave us the story of a father who has two sons, the elder was obedient to the father and worked laboriously in the fields, the younger was prodigal and demanded he be given his inheritance so he could go on his own way. The story has it the younger son wasted his money on all the mundane vices, and when he has no money left, he took a job as a caretaker of pigs, his situation so low he found his self eating with the pigs. That was when he remembered his father whose servants were well compensated and well taken cared of. So, he decided to ask for his father's forgiveness. The father, it turned out, was waiting for him, and when he saw his son coming home from a distance, he ran to embrace him and ordered his house for a celebration. In the meantime.the elder son was perplexed, and so he confronted his father, for he never received a feast for his obedience and hard work. The father simply said his brother was lost and now was found. If we are to analyze our own lives, sometime in our stories, we had been the prodigal son who rebelled. Or we could be the obedient one who would question the Father's wishes. Either way, our Father loves us both and when we realize this, our Father in heaven rejoices.