Turning Home

Hello Friends,

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal about a homeless man’s journey gripped my attention. The homeless man, Rob, was a husband, father, and successful lawyer living what most would see as a good life. Mental illness took hold, and a downward spiral commenced. By the time the article was written, he had been on the streets of Los Angeles for two years. Unfortunately, like many homeless, the mental illness made him believe he was fine living on the streets of LA. He was not dangerous to other people, and he could be completely lucid. Rob had many people who loved him and wanted to help him escape the streets. He is from Virginia, and his mother and sister worried about him constantly. They tried to help him many times. But as is the story with many homeless people, Rob came to believe that he preferred the streets rather than being subjected to treatment for his mental illness.

I see God acting in our world today, and I can see it in Rob’s story. Rob’s mother prayed that her son would get off the streets and take medication that would heal his mental illness. The miracle came after Rob once again talked his way out of a treatment facility. While back on the streets, the glow in the sky and debris from the recent LA fires triggered something in him. The miracle came when he contacted his mother in Virginia and asked her if he could go home.

Like the father in our Gospel story today, Rob’s mother wasted no time running out to meet her son. She immediately flew to LA, found Rob at the library in Silver Lake, and took him to his childhood home in Virginia, where he began his recovery. God willing, this will be the beginning of Rob’s sustainable recovery. I have zero expertise to comment on the mental illness factor, but I can’t help but see conversion in Rob’s story. In a moment of clarity, he asks to return home.

In today’s Gospel, there are two brothers—and two conversion stories. There is the more well-known conversion of the prodigal son. But the older brother is also in need of conversion. The parable reveals that the older brother’s adherence to the father’s commandments was not done with a loving heart. The older brother’s resentment spews out in anger toward the father. We don’t know the reaction of the older son when his father responds to the anger with love and mercy. “My son, you are here with me always Everything I have is yours.” The older brother’s character reminds us that conversion is a lifetime process.
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Pope Francis spoke pointedly to Vatican officials in 2022 on the need for lifetime conversion. This was in the context that we should not think of ourselves as safe just because we are now home in the Church. The message resonates with me because I spend my days at the parish. The Pope said, “Let me put it this way: they are ‘elegant demons’: they enter smoothly, without our even being conscious of them. Only the daily practice of the examination of conscience can enable us to be aware of them. Hence the importance of the examination of conscience, to keep watch over our house.”

Let us embrace God’s love and mercy with our hearts and minds so that we may be the disciples of Christ we desire to be.


Siempre adelante,


Manuel Leon
​Business Manager 

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