Fr. Jorge Miró shares with Exaudi readers his commentary on the Gospel for this Sunday, March 30, 2025, entitled “This Brother of Yours Was Dead and Has Come Back to Life.”

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Today we celebrate the Sunday called Laetare, the Sunday of Joy, because we sing in the entrance antiphon: Rejoice in Jerusalem, be glad about her, all you who love her; rejoice in her joy, all you who mourn for her; you will nurse at her breasts and be filled with her consolations (cf. Is 66:10).

What is the cause of such joy? The Word has given us the answer: Saint Paul has told us that the old has passed away, and the new has begun. God himself was in Christ reconciling the world to himself without holding them accountable for their sins, and he has placed within us the message of reconciliation.

This is the cause of our joy: that God loves you freely, that God is faithful and keeps his promises. God offers us salvation freely in his infinite love: Everything comes from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ.

God invites us to escape the slavery of sin and rebuild our history from his mercy. God gives his love without limits. God loves you, and will never stop loving you! He sent his Son not to condemn, but to save.

And he told us this very beautifully in the well-known Gospel of the Prodigal Son.

This parable aims to show us the common thread of the Christian faith, the very essence of Christianity: God loves you with a love that is free, that is, you don’t have to earn it. He loves you just as you are.

He created you out of love and so that you may live with Him a love story and a life of personal intimacy: you are His beloved child. This is your deepest identity.

And a love so great, it is eternal: God invites you to live with Him forever, for all eternity. Nothing and no one can separate us from God’s love, not even death (cf. Rom 8:38).

You, like the prodigal son, can doubt the Father’s love and leave His house to live your life according to your own plans, your own criteria, your own plans, and your own desires: that is sin.

You can stop loving God, but God will never stop loving you.

And sin, when we persist in living far from the Father, ultimately leads us to sadness and to begging for life from idols. And so, since they cannot give us life, we end up in dissatisfaction, in emptiness: suffering from “hunger.”

And the echo of God’s love that the Holy Spirit makes resonate in your heart invites you to return to the Father: in the name of Christ, we ask you to be reconciled with God. This is conversion: to stop living according to your own standards, to live in the Father’s will, to stop pretending to be the god of your life, to live as a child of God, to allow yourself to be embraced by the Father.

And when one returns, the Father always forgives, welcomes, and celebrates. When the Holy Spirit allows you to see your sins, it does not lead you to sadness or despair (that comes from the Evil One). The Holy Spirit gives you compunction, which is sorrow transfigured by God’s mercy.

The consequence of the Father’s forgiveness is symbolized in the ring, which is a sign of communion, and in the sandals, which are the shoes of the free man, in the joy of celebration, because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life.

Another consequence of having accepted God’s forgiveness is that your righteous heart toward your brother is transformed into a heart full of mercy. One that lives in truth, but in charity. One that does not seek the “death” of the sinner, but rather that he converts and lives. One that does not humiliate, but rather welcomes. One that does not murmur, but rather gives thanks. One that does not judge, but rather blesses…

The older brother had been in his father’s house all his life, but his heart was far from his father. He was more concerned with his father’s affairs than with his father.

Take heart! Do not be afraid! No matter how many your sins, no matter how far away you are, God is waiting for you. Allow yourself to be loved by Him! Contemplate His face… and you will be radiant.

Come, Holy Spirit!