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Home Sections The Daily B.R.E.A.D. March 14, 2009 - Saturday Meditation (Looking for Love in Wrong Places?)
March 14, 2009 - Saturday Meditation (Looking for Love in Wrong Places?) PDF Print E-mail
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Sections - The Daily B.R.E.A.D.
Thursday, 12 March 2009 22:35
The younger son wants something, something he’s not getting at home. So, his desires drive him into the big world to a life of dissipation. Somehow he figured that he could buy friendship and meaning and contentment by “squandering his inheritance.” His experience of emptiness drove him to “look for love in all the wrong places,” costing him his life.

Micah 7:14-15, 18-20
Psalm 103:1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12

Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. (2) And the Pharisees and the (3) So he told them this parable:
(11) And he said, "There was a man who had two sons; (12) 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. (13) 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. (14) And when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want. (15) So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed swine. (16) And he would gladly have fed on the pods that the swine ate; and no one gave him anything. (17) But when he came to himself he said, `How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger! (18) I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; (19) I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants."' (20) And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced  him and kissed him. (21) And the son said to him, `Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' (22) But the father said to his servants, `Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; (23) and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; (24) for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to make merry. (25) "Now his elder son was in the field; and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. (26) And he called one of the servants and asked what this meant. (27) And he said to him, `Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe and sound.' (28) But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, (29) but he answered his father, `Lo, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command; yet you never gave me a kid, that I  might make merry with my friends. (30) But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf!' (31) And he said to him, `Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. (32) It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.'"
 
 

* Meditation by Roc O'Connor, SJ

Who is there like you, the God who removes guilt and pardons sin for the remnant of his inheritance; Who does not persist in anger forever, but delights rather in clemency, And will again have compassion on us, treading underfoot our guilt? You will cast into the depths of the sea all our sins . . .
 
Each of the characters in the gospel story look at life so differently, don’t they?
 
The younger son wants something, something he’s not getting at home. So, his desires drive him into the big world to a life of dissipation. Somehow he figured that he could buy friendship and meaning and contentment by “squandering his inheritance.” His experience of emptiness drove him to “look for love in all the wrong places,” costing him his life.
 
Now, the older son isn’t that much different. He somehow figured that he could win meaning, contentment, and his father’s regard by being a “good little boy.” He ended up in a life lived in resentment. It was his search for approval that cost him his life.
 
The father is an interesting figure. Whether you judge him to be steadfast in his regard for his boys or you understand him to have been changed through his interactions with them, it does end up that these two key moments of encounter with the boys are completely revelatory.
 
The younger son, whose repentance seems rather dubious to me… This young man meets a powerfully welcoming regard from his dad. At least at this moment of return, it’s the way his dad looked at him that held out the potential for transformation. “You are mine. You were lost. It is good you are back home.”
 
We’ll never know, except from our own story and lived experience (!), whether this younger child accepted his dad’s regard, whether he was changed by it, or whether he ended up packing and leaving home again.
 
Same for the older son: Whether he could accept it or whether he clung rigidly to his resentment, his dad’s regard was there for him.
 
My questions surface in these ways: Is there true living on the other side of resentment? Is there thriving on the other side of rebellion? Is there a loving and steadfast regard on the other side of disillusionment? Is there transformation on the other side of distance?
 
This year, more than others, I am intrigued by the dad’s regard for his boys. Perhaps this is the way to be seen and, then, to see the world. Perhaps this is what Lent is all about. 
 
 

* Supplementary Reading
Be Impressed, not Impressive 
  

Look not to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others– Philippians 2:4

 
Too often we think that if we can impress others, we will gain influence with them. We want to become others' heroes—to be larger than life. That creates a problem because we're real live human beings. People can see us for who we really are. If we make it our goal to impress them, we puff up our pride and end up being pretentious—and that turns people off.

If you want to influence others, don't try to impress them. Pride is really nothing more than a form of selfishness, and pretense is only a way to keep people at arm's length so that they can't see who you really are. Instead of impressing others, let them impress you.

It's really a matter of attitude. The people with charisma, those who attract others to themselves, are individuals who focus on others, not themselves. They ask questions of others. They listen. They don't try to be the center of attention. And they never try to pretend they're perfect.
 

* * *
Spend today listening to others and letting them impress you.

* * *
 
Note:  This excerpt was taken from the "The Maxwell Daily Reader"
 
 
GOD BLESS US ALL!

PRAY as if everything depended on HIM. ACT as if everything depended on YOU.

http://his-ways-better-than-our-ways.blogspot.com

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