Saturday, March 2 : Saint Peter Chrysologus

The man who speaks these words was lying on the ground. He takes note of his fall, realizes his calamity, sees himself snared in sin and exclaims: “I will rise and go to my father.” Where does he get this hope from, this assurance, this confidence? From the fact that it is a question of his father. He says to himself: “I have lost my status as son but he has not lost his as father. There is no need of an outsider to intercede with a father: it is his love that intervenes and makes intercession in the depths of his heart. His fatherly bowels constrain him to beget his son over again through forgiveness. Guilty as I am, nevertheless I will go to my father.” And at the sight of his son, the father immediately veils his wrongdoing. He prefers his role of father to that of judge. He transforms judgement into pardon at once, desiring his son’s return not his loss… “He threw his arms around him and embraced him.” See how the father judges and how he corrects: he gives him a kiss instead of a punishment. The strength of love takes no account of sin and that is why the father repays his son’s wrongdoing with a kiss; he covers it over with his embraces. The father does not uncover his own child’s sin, he doesn’t blacken his son, he heals his wounds in such a way they leave no scar, no dishonour. “Happy is he whose fault is taken away, whose sin is covered” (Ps 31[32],1).
Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team