Discussion Questions

First Reading

Joshua 5:9a, 10-12

F1. How does God take care of you in your daily life? Was God as present to the Israelites in their daily lives in the Promised Land as in the desert? Is this true for you, metaphorically speaking?

F2. This reading and the Gospel are about coming home. How does that idea relate to Lent? What is your spiritual home?

Second Reading

2 Corinthians 5:17-21

S1. “And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ.” Some synonyms for reconcile are: forgive, restore harmony, rectify, patch up, reunite, bury the hatchet, appease, arbitrate. Wherever there is injustice in the world something is not reconciled. What might the Church do to change an unjust or unfair situation? What could your parish do? What can you do?

S2. “ … behold, new things have come.” Does God continue to do “new things”? Could our synodality in the Church be a new way of God speaking to us and the world?

Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J., says in his poem, That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire, “I am all at once what Christ is since he was what I am.” Does this mean that Christ lives within us if we consent? Explain.

Gospel

Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

G1. When the Pharisees accused him of eating with sinners, Jesus responded with the parable of the Prodigal Son. In what way was Jesus “prodigal”? What was Jesus telling us about God’s forgiveness? In the story did the son have to ask for forgiveness or did he just start on the road back home? Do you forgive easily? Is it easy or difficult for you to ask for forgiveness? What are your feelings about the older brother’s behavior in this parable?

G2. What does the Pope Francis’ fictional story below tell us about the Father?

I would like to recount a fictional story, but one that helps illustrate the heart of the father. There was a pop theatre production, three or four years ago, about the prodigal son, with the entire story. And at the end, when that son decides to return to his father, he talks about it with a friend and says: “I’m afraid my father will reject me, that he won’t forgive me”. And the friend advises him: “Send a letter to your father and tell him, ‘Father, I have repented, I want to come back home, but I’m not sure that you will be happy. If you want to welcome me, please put a white handkerchief in the window.’”

And then he began his journey. And when he was near home, at the last bend in the road, he had the house in view. And what did he see? Not one handkerchief: it was full of white handkerchiefs, the windows, everywhere! The Father welcomes us like this, completely, joyfully. This is our Father!

Pope Francis
Angelus, 27 March 2022

**From Saint Louis University