This Sunday is known as Laetare Sunday. Laetare is a Latin word meaning “rejoice.” Why rejoice? We are close to celebrating the Easter mystery.
You may have heard about the man who went to his doctor with concerns about his health and appearance. “I feel terrible,” the patient said. “When I look in the mirror, I see a balding head, sagging jowls, a pot belly, crooked teeth, bloodshot eyes…I'm a mess! I desperately need good news to boost my self-image.” The physician responded, “Well, the good news is you have perfect eyesight.”
What does the word of God have to say to us today? The book of Joshua describes how the Hebrews crossed the Jordan River from the wilderness into the promised land. They celebrate the Passover in which they renew God’s covenant with them. God now cares for his people with the produce from their rich, fertile land. The author challenges us never to forget God's blessings and God's unconditional love for us.
Paul, in his letter to the Christian community at Corinth in Greece, says we are new creatures, alive with the life of the triune God. This triune God within us—Father, Son, and Spirit—empowers us to become ambassadors for Jesus Christ, healers and peacemakers, generous in our families and workplaces and communities.
In the Gospel, we have the parable of the prodigal son, or better, the parable of the forgiving parent. The parable has many levels of meaning. The younger son asked for his inheritance, got it, squandered it—and then he “comes to his senses.” An amazing phrase! He realizes his true identity as a beloved son. He wants to be in relationship with his father, who unconditionally forgives and loves him and gives him a welcome-home party.
The older son finds this unconditional forgiveness and lavish generosity incomprehensible. And rightly so, from a human point of view. But from a divine point of view, the story emphasizes God the Father’s unconditional love for us. God’s love for us is as crazy as the love of the parent for the young son.
The parable may move us to ponder forgiving someone who has wronged us. Some people become so fixated on wrongs done to them that they let these wrongs imprison them, so to speak. The parable challenges us to forgive. If we can’t forgive on our own, pray for the grace to participate in the forgiveness of Jesus, who pardons those who are truly sorry and try to start their lives afresh.
The parable invites us to see ourselves in the characters. Are we the forgiving parent? The repentant younger son? The resentful older son?
And who is this Jesus who forgives us unconditionally? Did you ever wonder what Jesus really looked like? Whether or not it’s authentic, there’s a solid tradition from at least the Middle Ages that says the shroud of Turin has the imprint of the crucified Jesus. That’s one portrait or face of Jesus.
The great renaissance painters give us different portraits of Jesus. Do you have your own favorite portrait of Jesus?
The four recognized Gospel writers, Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John, also give us different portraits, different ways to follow Jesus. That’s easy to understand. People who know us see us differently, don’t they?
The Gospels are testimonies, not biographies, about who Jesus is. The Gospel writers faced a unique challenge. How portray someone who is completely human and yet completely divine? Should they emphasize the divine or the human? Moreover, they wrote to different audiences, so they wrote differently. We do the same. We write differently to different people. Which Gospel is most authentic? Which best reflects the historical Jesus? They all do.
Let me suggest we read one or two Gospels during the closing days of this Lenten season, perhaps Mark or John.
Mark was the earliest of the writers, and the briefest. He wrote between AD 65–70, shortly after scores of Christians perished during the persecution of Emperor Nero. Many Christians were asking, “Where is God in the midst of our sufferings? Has God forgotten us?” And possibly because so many disciples were being martyred, Mark thought he ought to put in writing who Jesus was, what he taught, and what he did. Tradition has it that Mark was a companion of Peter, a good source of information about Jesus.
Mark is an action Gospel. No mention of the childhood of Jesus. Mark begins the drama right away with John the Baptizer in the wilderness. The Jesus in Mark seems very approachable, very human. We can easily relate to the feelings of Jesus: compassionate with the handicapped; tough with hypocrites; misunderstood by the disciples; angry with the buyers and traders in the temple; afraid in the Garden of Gethsemane; and abandoned on the cross. Yes, the Jesus in Mark is very human: the Messiah who suffers so that we can live forever.
What happened to Jesus, Mark says, can happen to us too. To be a disciple may mean enduring illness, making sacrifices, feeling underappreciated, giving generously to other people. Luke’s and Matthew’s portraits are similar to Mark’s. That’s why we call these three synoptic Gospels.
The Gospel of John is a different Gospel. Jesus in John is noble, majestic, and divine. Remember how this Gospel opens: in the beginning was the Word. Yes, Jesus is completely human and completely divine. This is the mystery of the Incarnation. Jesus is one with the God of Israel. In fact, he is God. Jesus in John is the revealer of the mystery of God, the face of God among us. To be a disciple, for John, is to have friendship or relationship with Jesus, especially in regular prayer.
Can we have different portraits or faces of Jesus? Yes, of course. Jesus, the God-man, is more than any one person can adequately describe in human language. Each Gospel writer chose to bring out certain attributes or characteristics of Jesus. The Gospels give us different faces of Jesus, different
pathways in which to follow Jesus, especially during this Lenten season.
And so, the question we might ask ourselves is this: how do I reflect Jesus in my daily attitudes and behaviors? Rediscover a portrait of Jesus by prayerfully reading the Gospel according to Mark or John. And let that portrait fire you up to become an ever-more-faithful disciple of Jesus, the master.
