Today’s Gospel (Lk 15:1-3. 11-32) is at the heart of Jesus’ teaching. Jesus told the story of the
son who goes away from the Father almost 2000 years ago yet the message is aimed at each of us
today.
One way of looking at this Gospel is to ask whether we have a resemblance to any of the
individuals in the Gospel. Surely, each one of us is like the son. At times, we have left our Father
and gone away to live without Him. Similar to the son, our initial happiness turned empty and
our friends disappeared when it served their purposes. Hopefully, we imitate the son in going
back to the Father, even though he only expected to work for him.
Today’s Gospel demonstrates God’s attitude when we turn back to Him. The father in the story
sees the son a far way off and rushes out to him and embraces him. We might think that God
takes us back half-heartedly, on trial before we disappoint Him again. But, the Father of Jesus,
rushes out to us.
We may think that the dramatic return to the Father occurs just once or at most a few times. The
truth is that we don’t have only one conversion but multiple conversions. These conversions are
like some internet connections, on and off – but God continues to welcome us. St, Thomas
Aquinas, when speaking of the Sacrament of Penance, observes that we should continue to go to
the sacrament even when we repeat our sins: “What sort of a physician is he who knows not how
to heal a recurring disease? For if a man is sick a hundred times it is for the physician to heal him
a hundred times” (3a. 84, 10, ad 3).
Thomas asserts: “Penance derives its power from Christ’s Passion, as a spiritual medicine, which
can be repeated frequently” (3a. 84, 10, ad 5). As we turn to God, over and over, God comes to
us over and over just as the father ran out to welcome the son.
This gospel shows us God’s attitude towards us which is mercy. St. Thomas says: “Mercy is
proper to God for in mercy His omnipotence is chiefly manifested” (2a2ae. 30, 4).
If we were asked to identify which of God’s works was the greatest work of God, we might
assume that it was creation. Thomas affirms: “The justification of the ungodly, which terminates
at the eternal good of a share in the Godhead is greater than the creation of heaven and earth,
which terminates at the good of mutable nature” (1a2ae. 113, 9).
Among the individuals in this Gospel passage, at times, we might be like the elder brother who
resents the father’s generosity. The elder son is angry because he thinks that the son deserves to
be rejected and sent away. The elder brother’s attitude may be installed in our minds as the
collection of the negativity of those people, through our lives, who scolded us for our mistakes
and weaknesses. We may have the voice of the elder brother in us, scolding us, insisting that we
have exhausted God’s mercy. God will give us what we deserve.
Can we exhaust God’s mercy? Thomas asks whether God’s mercy conflicts with His justice:
“God acts mercifully, not by going against His justice but in doing something more than justice
… when one pardons an offense committed against him, he is said to bestow a gift … mercy
does not destroy justice but in a certain sense is its fullness” (1a. 21, 3, ad 2).

Jesus is the real elder brother urging us to believe in God’s mercy. Paul tells us in today’s
reading from the Second Letter to the Corinthians: “If anyone is in Christ He is a new creation.
All this has been done by God who has reconciled us to Himself through Christ” (2 Cor 5:17).
United with Christ, in Baptism and the Eucharist or by prayer, we become “new creations.” St.
Thomas explains that a creation is a change from nothing. Our first creation is our creation by
nature but our “new creation” is a “renewal by grace.” St. Augustine taught, “For sin is nothing,
and men become nothing, when they sin.” Thomas reflects, “It is clear that the infusion of grace
is a creation…” (Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians,
192)
Our reconciliation is initiated by the Father and brought about through Christ: “All this is from
God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against
them …” (2 Cor 5:18-19). Other passages echo Christ’s work of reconciliation: “Whether on
earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Col. 1:20); “We were reconciled to
God by the death of his Son” (Rom. 5:10).
Thomas reflects: “… the whole world was reconciled to God… God the Father, who reconciled
us to God, i.e., made peace between us and God. And this is by Christ, i.e., by the Incarnate
Word” …” (Commentary on Second Corinthians, 197).
We can also be like the father in the parable, reconciling others: “So we are ambassadors for
Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to
God” (2 Cor 5:20). We can be ministers of reconciliation. Thomas Aquinas comments: “As if to
say: He has given us the mystery of reconciliation in this way, namely, that he has entrusted to us
the message of reconciliation, i.e., he has given the power and has inspired in our hearts to
announce to the world that this reconciliation was made by Christ. By doing this we induce men
to conform themselves to Christ by baptism” (Commentary on Second Corinthians, 198).
Thomas wonders why we need to be reconciled if God has reconciled us: “Therefore, if He
reconciled us, what need is there to be reconciled? For we are already reconciled. I answer that
God reconciled us to himself as efficient cause, namely, on His part, but in order that it be
meritorious for us, it is necessary that reconciliation be made on our part, namely, in baptism and
in penance. And then we cease from sins” (Commentary on Second Corinthians, 199).
We are reconciled to God, freed from our sins by the sacrifice of the one who knew no sin: “He
gave us the power to live justly and abstain from sins. By doing this we are reconciled to God.
Hence he says, for our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin. As if to say: you can be
reconciled to God, because He, namely, Christ, who knew no sin: “He committed no sin; no
guile was found on his lips” (1 Pet. 2:22); “Which of you convicts me of sin?” (Jn. 8:46)
(Commentary on Second Corinthians, 199).

Denis Vincent Wiseman, O.P.

References to the Summa Theologiae of St. Thomas Aquinas give the part of the Summa, the
question and the article. If the passage is found in a response to an objection that Thomas has introduced in the first part of the article, the Latin word “ad,” meaning “to,” is added with the
number of the objection.
The quotations from St. Thomas’ Commentary on the Second Letter to the Corinthians
are taken from the translations of Fr. Fabian R. Larcher, O.P., edited by J. Mortensen
and E. Alarcón. The translation, found in Volume 38 of the Biblical Commentaries, was
published by the Aquinas Institute for the Study of Sacred Doctrine, Lander, Wyoming,
in 2012.