Gospel (Lk 15,1-3.11-32) - At that time, all the tax collectors and sinners approached him to listen to him. The Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying: "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." And he told them this parable: «A man had two sons. The younger of the two said to his father: "Father, give me the share of the inheritance that is due to me." And he divided his possessions among them. A few days later, the youngest son, having collected all his things, left for a distant country and there squandered his fortune by living profligately. When he had spent everything, a great famine occurred in that country and he began to find himself in need. Then he went to put himself in the service of one of the inhabitants of that region, who sent him into his fields to graze pigs. He would have liked to satiate himself with the carobs the pigs ate; but no one gave him anything. Then he came to his senses and said: «How many of my father's hired servants have plenty of bread and I am dying of hunger here! I will arise and go to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Treat me like one of your hired hands." He got up and went back to his father. »When he was still far away, his father saw him, had compassion, ran to meet him, threw himself on his neck and kissed him. The son said to him: «Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy of being called your son." But the father said to the servants: «Quickly, bring here the most beautiful dress and let him wear it, put the ring on his finger and the sandals on his feet. Take the fatted calf, kill it, let us eat and celebrate, because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life, he was lost and has been found." And they began partying. »The eldest son was in the fields. On his return, when he was near home, he heard music and dancing; he called one of the servants and asked him what all this was. He replied: "Your brother is here and your father had the fatted calf killed, because he got him back safe and sound." He was indignant, and did not want to enter. His father then went out to beg him. But he replied to his father: «Behold, I have served you for many years and I have never disobeyed your command, and you have never given me a kid to celebrate with my friends. But now that this son of yours has returned, who devoured your goods with prostitutes, you have killed the fatted calf for him." The father answered him: «Son, you are always with me and everything that is mine is yours; but we needed to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and came back to life, he was lost and was found »».

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

As we continue our Lenten journey following Jesus we are offered this evangelical page on forgiveness. As the Gospels often note, a large crowd follows Jesus, and is mostly made up of the sick, sinners, the poor, and abandoned people. All this does not go unnoticed. Indeed, this privileged relationship of Jesus with sinners is one of the reasons for the accusation by the Pharisees. In the pages of Scripture, in truth, this privileged relationship of God for the poor is one of the constants of the history of salvation. It is a qualifying part of the mission of Jesus, indeed of the very image of God. Jesus does nothing but imitate the Father who is in heaven: he brings the Father's mercy to everyone. For this reason, to the objections that he frequents tax collectors and sinners, Jesus responds not by speaking of himself but of the Father. In the parable of the prodigal son he shows precisely what God's behavior is towards his children: that of an unimaginably merciful father. The whole parable is constructed to exalt the unusual behavior of the father towards the son who had abandoned the house and squandered everything. But it is the father who occupies the central scene. The embrace with that son is the culmination of the evangelical narrative. The father, despite the foolish choices of his younger son with everything else he had done, waits for him to return to celebrate. If the Father in heaven is like this, how could Jesus behave differently? The parable continues and introduces the eldest son. The evangelist shows that he too was distant from his father's feelings of mercy. The scene of the father who, as soon as he sees his younger son returning, starts running to meet him is moving. “Behold, the Father in heaven is like this, like this father in the parable, Jesus seems to mean. He comes running towards us to get us back. This is the meaning of Christian forgiveness: forgiveness starts from God, even before it comes from us. Welcoming this embrace is what is asked of us. The scene of the father embracing his son is the clearest icon of the sacrament of Confession and in any case of forgiveness. That father doesn't seem to know how to live without his children. He therefore also goes out towards his eldest son who did not want to enter: he too has to hug his brother. Yes, God is exactly like this: he always precedes in love and runs towards us, sinners, with his embrace, to teach us to embrace each other. And the season of Lent is an appropriate time to experience the richness and joy of forgiveness, both with confession and with reconciliation between brothers.