Western Diocese

The third Sunday of the Lenten Journey is entitled in the Armenian Church as the "Sunday of the Prodigal Son". The lesson of the day deepens in our spirituality many important thoughts such as confessing our wrongdoings and flaws, but above all, praying for kindness and forgiveness.

Confessing and forgiving are two virtues that ought to be applied in our lives. There is not a single day which passes without failures. However, the Christian ought to evaluate his day with a confessional prayer to God. This truly is the defining moment and is the special time when we once again put on Christ, live with love. And the Almighty God embraces us once again with love and kindness, with a forgiving heart, reinstating us in our original right.

This is the very lesson that all of us take from the lesson of the day, as we read the parable of the Prodigal Son. The parable mirrors our life. The Prodigal Son represents humankind with our spiritual turmoil, while the father represents the ever-presence of the Almighty God. Therefore, let us always be forgiving in nature and be Christ's hands to change the lives of those who have prayers of confession.

"Christ has no body on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. You are the eyes through which Christ's compassion for the world is to look out; yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good; and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now".                  - Saint Teresa of Avila  

Archbishop Hovnan Derderian

Primate

February 28, 2010