Lent: No chasm is too wide for God’s grace to bridge

By Father Allan Weinert, C.S.S.R.
Guest Column

In the Catholic tradition, Lent is identified by ashes, the color purple and the Stations of the Cross.

This is a story from the Jewish tradition.

The story is about a father and his adult son who lived together in a single-family home. Their relationship was contentious, and heated arguments often broke out. Conversations about simple topics ended up in shouting matches. The fact is that the father was kind of an old curmudgeon and not easy to be with.

One evening, after one of these outbursts, the son thought to himself: “There is no way my father and I can live peacefully in the mind and heart of each other. It is best that I leave and live elsewhere.”

In the morning, he told his father about his plans. He did leave and left no forwarding address. Initially, the father thought, “We will finally have peace in this house.”

After about a week, the father realized that he missed his son and that, despite their considerable differences, he really loved him. “If only we could agree to disagree,” he thought.

He summoned his servant and told him, “Go and find my son. Tell him that I love him and want him to come home.”

The servant had no idea where to look but started out by asking people if they had seen his master’s son. He gathered enough accurate information to find the son, and when he did, he conveyed his master’s wishes.

The son thought about his father’s request to come home and was heartened by it, but he also remembered how difficult it was to live with his father. He told the servant, “Tell my father I cannot come home. It is too far.”

The servant returned and informed the father of his son’s reply. The father was saddened since he was hoping for a joyful reunion.

He thought for a moment and then told the servant, “Go back and find my son. This time tell him to come back as far as he can, and I will come the rest of the way.”

Coming home is the essence of our Lenten journey. We do not have to do it all by ourselves. I do not believe we have drifted too far away. But if we look closely, perhaps we can find an ideal we lost, a promise we did not keep or an expectation we did not live up to.

Subtly woven into the fabric of all the prayers we pray, the Scriptures we hear and the songs we sing during this time is a quiet, inner movement from sin to grace; from death to life; from darkness to life; and from fear to trust.

Redemptorist Father Allan Weinert is pastor of St. Alphonsus Parish in New Orleans.