In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
my Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that
you see me, that you hear me. I adore you.
With profound reverence. I ask you for pardon of my sins
and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful.
My mother, Immaculate St Joseph, my father and Lord, my guardian
Angel in deceive. So we have begun the season of
Lent, which is of course not just a season of giving up
things, which is partly that, but it goes much, it goes much
deeper than that. And it is of course, a season of
conversion. And we are looking to be
converted this Lent, maybe in ways that we know we should be
converted, but also perhaps in ways we don't yet know that we
need a conversion. So we could begin by saying
Jesus, Well, if, if you need me to convert to change in some
area that I don't really, I don't really see, I don't yet
know. Well, please, over the course of
this Lent, show it to me, reveal this area of conversion.
Now, the greatest story of conversion, the greatest
conversion story of all is the story of the prodigal son, this
parable that Jesus tells us in the Gospel.
So I thought it would be nice that we would probably begin our
Lent praying with the parable of the prodigal son and kind of
seeing our sounds. We are the prodigal son and and
so anyway we'll go through it step by step and let me see how
it goes. So Jesus tells us there was a
man who had two sons, and the younger of them said to his
father, Father, give me the share of property that falls to
me. And he divided his living
between them. Not many days later, the younger
son gathered all he had and took his journey into a far country
and there he squandered his property in loose living.
The younger son a little bit foolish, the baby of the family
and loved by his father. We can imagine.
But, and, and this is the important thing I suppose, that
we realise it's a question of where is your heart?
And he's with his father, who as we see later, his father is a
wonderful, wonderful man. He couldn't be better.
Of course, he represents God the Father and the son doesn't
really appreciate that. And his heart is, is moving out
of the house before he actually moves himself.
And his heart is going and you can see it in his imagining this
far away country where he's going to live a kind of crazy
life. But you can see him, you know,
he's hard to know. He's he maybe reading stories
about wherever it is, the kind of whatever kind of seaside
resort somewhere. And he's imagining, Oh yeah,
the, the, the beaches with my friends and go out drinking
every night and clubbing or whatever they do in the 1st
century. And that's the kind of life he's
imagining. And his heart is gone off to
Central Bay or wherever it is. And that's, that's where his
heart is and no longer with his father.
And this is the important thing. It's not, it's not just so much
as his actual external behaviour is where his heart has gone.
And so soon he follows his heart off to this resort town,
wherever it is. And foolish feast spends
everything, he loses everything there.
Now the Jesus goes on and says, when he had spent everything, he
goes through a large inheritance.
A great famine arose in that country, and he began to be in
want. So he went and joined himself to
one of the citizens of that country who sent him into the
fields to feed swine pigs. And he would gladly have fed on
the pods that the swine ate. And no one gave him anything.
But when he came to himself, he said, how many of my father's
hired servants have bred enough and despair?
But I perish here with hunger. And so it's, it's nicely
described by you, Lord, how the hunger comes, this famine, and
the famine is in his heart. In other words, he's given his
heart to his nightclubbing and his cocktails and his righteous
living, thinking this will bring me great happiness.
And of course it brings him pleasure for a little while, but
then even the pleasure disappears and he's left with
his own famine. His heart is in a desert and he
may still be in Central Bay, but his heart is in the desert and
he's lost everything. And, and not only that, but he's
degraded. He's lost his dignity, he's lost
his money, He's lost his dignity because even the pigs are eating
better food than he is eating. So Jesus is showing us in a kind
of in a kind of dramatic way, what a terrible thing to lose
our dignity this way that somehow even the pigs are better
off than he is. And he regrets, you can imagine,
he regrets all that money, everything.
He regrets everything that he did.
And that's, that can be us hoping we're not have having a
completely crazy lifestyle, but we do things every sin, every
sin is where the heart is going away from you, Lord, And the
heart is going away to something we imagine is going to bring me
happiness And, and we're kind of attracted away like this guy is
very foolish in a way. You and I, you know, imagine
this will bring me happiness, this kind of temptation, this
will be it. I get this and this will kind of
magically make me happy, fill my heart, but it never really does.
And it leaves us with a with a sense of unhappiness.
And if it's more serious, it leaves us with the sense of
degradation. We're degraded.
Now, what's very important, however, is his memory.
His memory. He remembers his father's house.
Funny, the Russian writer Dostoevsky, he's got a line
which goes something like if we can remember our childhood
innocence, we can be saved. It's kind of true.
You know, a person that that goes doing crazy things, but
they remember when they were a child and they were innocent and
also very happy. And you can remember that
remembering being with their mother and their father and,
and, and realising, gosh, I've gone down a very wrong track.
And my joy, my happiness was always in my father's house.
That's what he remembers. And that's very important.
And so for us, it's the same. We're gonna, I think sometimes
remember, you know, our happiest moments, our happiest moment.
Very often our happiest moments are, I don't know about you, but
you know, a beautiful mass, beautiful time of prayer,
something very simple, beautiful time of fraternity.
They're very, very happy moments.
They're very important for us actually, because you kind of
think we do stupid things or, and very expensive things even,
you know, I remember, gosh, going to Mass was free.
I don't have to pay in. And these are, you know, really
simple, but really, really happy moments.
And so that's this kind of saves this boy the the memory of his
happiness with his father. So, so he turns back and that's
what conversion is. Conversion is turning around as
what it literally means. You turn around.
He's gone off to this resort somewhere and he literally says
I'm going home. It's very beautiful.
Be this memory reminds him of those happy times and he and he
makes his resolution. I will arise and go to my father
and I will say to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and
before you I'm no longer worthy. Be called your son.
Treat me as one of your hired servants.
What I'd like to imagine here, because when he comes back,
Jesus tells us a lovely detail when he comes back.
The Father saw him while he was still far away, which means the
Father was up on the roof watching out spot.
When will he come back? The father wasn't watching TV or
reading the newspaper. The Father was up on the roof
waiting for him to return. So it's a beautiful, beautiful
detail. It's not like we could kind of
imagine. Oh, the father didn't care.
The father's OK, You're gone. See if I care?
Not at all. Every day is according to our
Lord's description, Obviously, every day his loving Father is
on the roof of the house looking at the horizon.
When would he come back and praying?
Imagine he's praying. He thought it was God the
Father. He was God the Father.
He doesn't to pray, but he's that sense kind of the matter.
He's praying for the boy and and you and where do you think this?
What are the lines that we have in in this Mass that we're about
to have now. Now it is the Lord who speaks.
Come back to me with all your heart.
And that's it kind of exactly what the Father would be saying
and wishing, wishing for his son.
Come back to me with all your heart.
So we think of contrition, you know, we're all, we're all, you
know, showing our contrition. We're all a little bit hungry or
maybe before dinner, we're a bit hungry because we're living our
fast and abstinence. We some of us have ashes.
Maybe we're all of ashes by the end of the evening.
But these are signs. They're signs, Lord, I'm sorry
that I've left you in some way or so in a certain sense, you
know, Lord, I'm sorry that in some way I love food more than I
love you in some way. Lord, I'm sorry that I love
drink more than you or that I'm I love my phone more than I love
you in a certain way because that that is the case.
You know that that's why we're fasting food and drink obviously
today, but, but maybe also our phone, our entertainment,
because we're kind of saying, but I want to, I want to return
to you. And my heart is too immersed in
creatures, creatures that fill me with delight.
You know, umm, we're all different, but different things,
you know, for one person, uh, you know, their favourite
dessert and, and their eyes light up and their heart.
I mean, for me, if I see my favourite dessert, my heart
jumps. You know, all my favourite.
I'm not going to tell you where it is my favourite dessert, you
know, joy, joy, which is lovely. But what happens is that just
like this boy, our heart turns away from God and kind of
adores, almost like worships the creature and the creature is
only a creature. And just because of our
disorder, we kind of OK, it's a nice dessert, but don't make a
God out of it. Oh yeah, the these things are
interesting on our phone, online or our success, even success in
our career, great. But don't make a God out of it.
All these creatures. And so there's a Latin phrase
which I think is quite helpful when we think of what conversion
is. And it says sin is the Latin
phrase is stronger than the English translation.
Sin is an adversio adeo and a convercio and creaturas.
And we have the English word a aversion.
Aversion is a really strong dislike for something.
Oh my God, I have an aversion to that kind of food.
Say I hate it and you so you. But in this phrase, your
aversion from God, you turn away from God and I just don't like
him. And I convert towards creatures.
Give me my dessert or give me the our sinful things as well.
Yeah. And and we turn away from God.
And so conversion is the exact opposite.
We reverse that conversio and deo and deo maybe, and adversio,
our creator or us. So turn your back away from
creatures. That's what we're doing today in
a kind of dramatic way, but all to some degree, you know, in a
very explicit way during the Lent with things we love.
And we kind of think I love them too much.
I love my dessert too much. I love my phone too much.
They're very good things, but I love them too much.
And so and they, they lead me even in small ways, they lead me
to turn away from God. So now I have to turn away from
my food to some degree, turn away from my phone, turn away
from my music, Not completely but making it smaller, put it
that way and turn it to God. This is the the conversion and
this is what the Father is saying, you know, and praying
for his son. Come back to me with all your
heart. Come back to me.
Redirect your heart for me to me because this is where your
happiness is like. You remember when I was thinking
of the boys boy, just like when you were a child in this house,
your happiest moments were here with me.
And so we have to experience that over length as well.
My Lord, my happiest moments are with you actually, and that
wouldn't be the case for all eternity.
That is what the only thing that can really fill our heart
because our heart is made for God.
So very simple. So the boy arises, he goes when
he's still far away off them. The Father sees him, has
compassion, and he and and ran. It's very beautiful.
The father doesn't just walk out or wait.
We just sit there with his arms folded.
The father runs out and embraces him and kiss him even before the
boy says anything. There's a beautiful painting,
the beautiful painting by Rembrandt, the prodigal son.
You see it and the the boy's a mess, but the father's there
embracing him. And then the son starts off with
his little act of contrition. Father, I have sinned against
heaven and before you. I'm no longer worthy to be
called your son. But the Father hears hears his
contrition and that's very good. He makes his act contrition.
And that is very much what we do in in confession.
That's why confession is an important part of Lent.
It's really important because and a good quality confession
where no, we don't have to. We don't have to break down
crying if you want you can, but we don't have to be.
We don't have to cry, but we do have to feel contrition
literally is your our our heart is broken.
Remember where this lovely line today from the prophet Joel, Let
your let your heart be broken and not your garments torn.
The tear the Jews used to tear their garments.
They're very superficial and and and Jesus Joel is saying no,
none of it your garments that's exterior things or the ashen or
forehead great, but the more the important thing is your heart is
a bit broken because we see our sins nor the things I do against
you against you against others, the nasty things I think and say
about others. I'm I'm really sorry my that
breaks my heart and even the things I do against myself, my,
my over indulging my wasting hours of time and whatever
social media, whatever. And these are the three the
three areas that we're trying to cure over Lent.
The things I do against God with the cure for that is prayer.
The things I do against others, my nasty words at times, my
nasty thoughts against others, Am's giving the things I do
against myself over indulging in food or social media or
whatever, fasting. So it's these are three
traditional practises of lame, but you see why they're like
they're medicine prayer because we we act against God.
Am's giving in a general sense because we act against others
and fasting because we act against ourself with our sins.
These are the three remedies we hear about in today's gospel.
Jesus talks very explicitly about praying when you when you
pray going to your in your room when you give alms, don't let
your right hand know what your left hand is doing when you're
fasting. Don't don't have it.
You have it written all over your face.
And so this is it the three relationships, but also in this
we have to see. Well, Lord, help me to that
underlying this is real. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Lord, that
I've treated you badly. I'm sorry that I've treated
others badly and I'm sorry I also have treated myself badly
with my with my sins. Now, just for some practical
ideas. There's a there's a prayer, the
the opening prayer of the Mass, which we're about to celebrate.
It's a very interesting line. It's I'll read it.
It says, granted, Lord, that we may begin with holy fasting this
campaign by campaign. It means like a battle, we're
going to battle of Christian service so that as we take a
battle against spiritual evils, we may be armed with weapons of
self restraint. So it's funny is the idea is
that we're all heading off into battle and just that the
soldiers will be given there as your your rifle and there's
your, your bullets and there's your helmet.
And so we're heading off into battle and the weapons were
taking up and there's your sobriety, there's your
temperance with food, there's your temperance with your phone,
there's your temperance with your tongue.
And these things, these are your weapons because otherwise you're
going to get shot dead on day one.
You need these, your weapons. And so these are the our weapons
for this campaign. And it's a 40 day campaign.
We're all heading off to, to war now and there's finally just one
little. It's a prayer which you don't
see because we use it in the, in the bravery.
So we priests pray it. But I find it very striking
because it gives a very good, I think a very practical way to
approach Lent again in Latin. I think it's a little bit more,
it's a little bit more strong, but it says utama, ergo parchis.
Let's use more sparingly. And it mentions things that we
should use more sparingly. And the very first one it
mentions isn't food, it isn't drink, it isn't the mobile
phone. It's words.
It's kind of funny. Let us be more sparing in our
words. Don't you know?
It's almost like we should have, you know, feel that we have a, a
kind of quota of words, you know, like, OK, you've finished
your quota. You know, it's only half nine in
the morning, but you've used up your quota and that's it.
No more words today. And what Pope Leo says in his
lovely message for Lent, he says, he says we don't normally
think in this way, but we should be obstinious in our in our
words, meaning he's really thinking about our words are
often cruel that we somebody say to people or more often say
about people. And so he says, let's try to be
very abstemious, porcius barco or more reserved, less words to
people, especially harsh words to people about people and even
mental words, words in our own mind that are never said to
anybody else judgements. And so that's that's a lovely
message from Pope Leo saying that's a very important area of
being of kind of blend. Let's be more obstinous with
these words. The ones we say to people about
people are that they never come out of our mind, but they're
then said in our own mind. That's the very first one.
So let's be more sparing in words, food.
And then it mentions two other ones, which you won't have.
You never have guessed Yochis at Somnol.
So sleep, sleep, don't overdo sleep.
Kind of interesting. Not that we should be like 5
hours a night to sleep properly, but don't overdo sleep.
Now you're going to think, well, actually, that could also be
part of a Lenten campaign. Don't do, I'm not going to have
whatever hours of sleep, but don't overdo sleep.
And then the other one is Yoch's, which is games.
Games again, not oh not saying no games, it's saying purchase
more sparing and games basically means entertainment.
So we just that we're not so not entertaining ourselves so much
on our again, on our phone, our music going out for
entertainments, just more sparing because that's one of
the areas. Actually, there's a book
published in the 1960s and things have not got any better
since then. But the title of this book,
quite a famous book entertaining ourselves to death.
It's the famous it's by a guy called Postman.
But because he just even said he said there, wow, we're an
entertainment culture. That's the 1960s.
And it's true how much we entertain ourselves.
So Porcius less, less of this because again, this creature,
which is entertainment, which is good, but we go overboard and
actually entertain every other moment of the day.
I, you know, listen to my my podcast and I listen to my music
and then I'm looking at a little video and then, Oh my God, I
haven't been entertained in, in in 3 minutes.
I better get entertained again. So too much so purchase.
So I think that's very, I think that's a very, very, very
practical thing for our Lenten campaign.
But always thinking, Lord, whether it's, you know, I'm
turning my back a little bit on my entertainment, my sleep, on
my, on my drink, on my words, so that my heart, like the prodigal
son's heart, is going back to the father and rediscovering the
joy of being with my father. Much greater joy than food or
drink or entertainment can ever give me.
So that's our campaign. So let's ask Our Lady to help us
over these these 40 days. Persevere not to give up after a
week to stick at it. And then, because then we go to
the great joy of being so close to you, Lord, in Holy Week, and
especially them. For these
I give you thanks, my God, for the good resolutions, affections
and inspirations you have communicated to me in this
meditation. I ask you for help to put them
into effect. My mother, Immaculate St Joseph,
my father, Lord, my guardian Angel, intercede for me.