“Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of fateful trip. That started from this tropic port aboard this tiny ship.” It is frightening to me just exactly how many of us knew immediately where that song was from AND could probably recite the rest of the lyrics. We might not know all of the verses of the Gospel of St. Matthew, but we sure do have our TV theme songs down. Many of us grew up watching “Gilligan’s Island”. Sometimes, I think that I spent more time when I was growing up with Gilligan, the Professor, and Mary Ann than I did my own brothers. You know, at one time, when you lived in Logansport, and got TV stations from South Bend, Indianapolis, Lafayette, and Ft. Wayne, you could actually watch re-runs of “Gilligan’s Island four times a day! It’s true. And everybody loved that show. They say, whoever the great “they” are, they say that we loved that show because everybody could relate to Gilligan. Yeah, he was bumbling, and he made mistakes, and he was always getting in trouble, but it was the Skipper’s little buddy who we related to, not the others. We might not be as smart as the Professor. We might not be as rich as Thurston Howell the Third, and his wife. We might not be as beautiful or as glamorous as Ginger. But because all of us know what it is like to be an idiot, Gilligan was our man. They sold us on that TV show all because of Gilligan. And we’ve watched it for years.

Today, for our Gospel, we get another story that we’ve heard millions of times. The Prodigal Son story has been re-run and re-run over and over again by the Catholic Church. And we hear this story, and who do we relate to, in this story? We relate to the Good Son, don’t we? Most of the time, when most of us hear this story, we think of ourselves as that faithful, older son who stuck with his father. And why do we do this? We do this because most of us think of ourselves as basically pretty good people. We are good sons and daughters. Oh, we might not be perfect, we’ve all made a few little mistakes here and there, but we really think that basically we are like that good son. And maybe it is our sins of pride or our presumptions that really show us for who we really are, but we’ve got it all wrong. We are not like the good and faithful son in this story. We are the Prodigal Son! We have sinned against our Father in Heaven. We have broken His commandments. We have ripped off our inheritance for our fleeting security. We have made a mess of things, and then we have to come crawling home. The Prodigal Son story isn’t for “them”. It is for us. It is for me. It is for you. And until we “get this straight”, we are never going to fully understand God’s mercy. This is exactly the Scribes’ and Pharisees’ problem. Remember, at the beginning of this text, who is Jesus telling this story to? He’s talking to the Scribes and Pharisees because they are all upset about who Jesus is eating with! They are so angry, and judgmental, and so lacking in compassion, that they don’t see their own sins, because they are too busy listing the sins of everybody else. Are they the sinless older brother, NO WAY! They, too, are prodigal sons, just like us. They just don’t know it. Do we know it?

For this parable to do its job, we’ve got to relate to the right person in the story. We are all in need of God’s great mercy, not just some. The real person we should want to get to know in this story is this Father, because this Father loves each one of us, despite our sins, and desires that each of us come “home” to Him. God is offering all of us so much here. How can we not take advantage of it? We get to do this sacramentally this Tuesday evening, as we together celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation in our communal Penance service. God’s grace and mercy will be flowing all over the place here on Tuesday night. If you haven’t been to Confession yet this Lent, then you and your family need to be here on Tuesday night at 7:00 PM. Five additional priests will be here Tuesday night to help us to receive this Sacrament of God’s awesome love and mercy. Don’t pass this opportunity up. It’s only the first step to realize that all of us have been “prodigal”. What has to happen next, is we have to have Reconciliation. The Father waits with His arms open and with a heart full of love and mercy. How long are we going to pretend that we don’t need His forgiveness? How long are we going to play the game that we are better than we really are?

The TV show “Gilligan’s Island” worked so well because we did relate to Gilligan. We can all be a little bumbling, a little clumsy, and a little stupid. The parable of the Prodigal Son is only going to work well when we realize that all of us have broken the Father’s heart. We all need forgiveness. We all need a Savior. We all need the chance to start over. Let’s take that chance. And let us give others the same chance that we want God to give us.

God bless us on this Fourth Sunday of Lent, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit… AMEN!!!

St. Maria Goretti… Pray for us!!!