Restorative justice and the diaconate
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A Introductory Presentation on Restorative Justice for Deacon Candidates in the Diocese of Santa Rosa.
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Restorative justice and the diaconate
- 1. A Reflection By Deacon John Storm May 2015 RESTORATIVE JUSTICE AS A DIACONAL MINISTRY
- 2. OBJECTIVES • To review concepts of restorative and social justice • To connect the role of a deacon with social and restorative justice • To invite deacon candidates to participate in restorative and social justice ministries
- 3. IN THE BEGINNING A Short History of Crime
- 6. ESCALATION Harm is Done The Person Harmed is Avenged Vengeance Leads to Vendetta Vendetta Leads to Feud Feud Leads to Warfare
- 7. AN ANCIENT DILEMMA: HOW TO RESPOND TO CRIME?
- 8. HISTORICAL RESPONSES TO CRIME • Retributive: Punishment • Vengeance • Retaliation • Restitution • Preventive • Incapacitation • Deterrence • Rehabilitative • A medical model treating the offender as a patient to be “cured”
- 10. CATHOLIC RESTORATIVE JUSTICE MINISTRIES • Catholic • We act as representatives of the Catholic Community • We act as representatives of the Catholic Church
- 11. CATHOLIC RESTORATIVE JUSTICE MINISTRIES • Restorative • What’s being restored? • Relationships
- 12. RELATIONSHIP • Relationship is first and foremost an association between persons – it is an interpersonal association • The endurance of relationships ranges from fleeting to enduring • Relationships also involve interdependence • “Interdependence is and ought to be as much an ideal of man as self-sufficiency” (Gandhi)
- 13. CATHOLIC RESTORATIVE JUSTICE MINISTRIES • Justice
- 14. LET’S TALK ABOUT “JUSTICE”
- 15. WHAT IS JUSTICE? • Justice is “the habit whereby a person renders to each his due” • With a lasting and constant will • To be “just”, then, means to owe something and to pay the debt • Justice is fidelity to the demands of a relationship • Infidelity to our relationships = injustice
- 16. Justice is relevant to every relationship and to every situation and circumstance of life There is no setting in which we do not have to take into account our responsibilities to others What justice will require will differ depending on the nature of the relationships But it will always be pertinent and can never be dismissed
- 17. RESTORATIVE JUSTICE "We must be the change we wish to see in the world" ~ Mahatma Gandhi
- 18. RESTORATIVE: • Having power to restore. • To give back something taken away. • To bring back to a former condition as by repairing or rebuilding.
- 19. RETRIBUTIVE SYSTEM QUESTIONS ▪ Who did it? ▪ What laws were broken? ▪ How will we punish the offender? Restorative Justice views crime through a different lens.
- 20. RESTORATIVE JUSTICE QUESTIONS ▪ What is the harm? ▪ What needs to be done to repair the harm? ▪ Who is responsible for the repair?
- 21. WHAT IS THE HARM? • It is an injury to the victim, community, even the offender • Broken Relationships • We must recognize crime as an interpersonal conflict
- 22. WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE TO REPAIR THE HARM? ▪ Identify and clarify the harm that’s been done ▪ Include the victim ▪ Include the Community ▪ Assess the offender’s capacity to make reparation ▪ Facilitate opportunities for the reparation to take place
- 23. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE REPAIR? • The offender, not the state, has primary and personal responsibility for making things right with the victim and the community. • The responsibility is shared by the agency, the offender, their family, the community and the victim.
- 24. HOW DO WE REPAIR HARM? • Reduce risk • Build community
- 25. ACCOUNTABILITY • Taking direct responsibility • Taking action to make things right • Communities and victims actively determine response • Offender feels obligation to victims and community • Victims and community set community standards for behavior and consequences • Not punishment • Not being only responsible to State
- 26. COMPETENCY DEVELOPMENT • Is building a skill that is valued by others • Is more than an absence of bad behavior • Is functioning in a meaningful, positive way • Leaves the person stronger in character, more connected to community, remorseful, and empathetic • Is recognizing one’s potential and building on that • Comes from opportunities to lead, belong, mentor, contribute, form relationships, make choices, develop transferable skills
- 27. PUBLIC SAFETY INCREASES WHEN… • Offenders develop internal controls • Community members resolve conflict • Community Justice is solution-focused • Community Justice partnerships are developed
- 29. RESTORATIVE JUSTICE IS. . . • Healing the harm!
- 30. SO WHAT’S CATHOLIC RESTORATIVE JUSTICE Ministry ?
- 31. THE MINISTRY OF A CATHOLIC DEACON • Tria Munera of Christ – Prophet, Priest King • The Three Works of Deacons (SEE CCC 877) • Service of the Gospel (Word) • Service of the Liturgy (Altar) • Service of Charity
- 32. THE SERVICE OF CHARITY IS MINISTRY TO OTHERS • Ministry to others takes many specific forms, which can generally be described as Social Justice or “Two Feet of Love in Action”
- 33. TWO FEET OF LOVE IN ACTION
- 34. MATTHEW 25 – OUR MANDATE The Parable of the Ten Virgins We must be vigilant The Parable of the Talents We must use wisely that which has been given to us by the Master The Judgment of the Nations We shall be judged according to how well we see the face of the King in our poorest brothers and sisters
- 35. HOW TO RESPOND TO THE VICTIMS OF CRIME
- 36. HOW TO RESPOND TO OFFENDERS - WITH TRUTH
- 37. HOW TO RESPOND TO OFFENDERS – COMPASSION
- 38. HOW TO RESPOND TO OFFENDERS – WITH WELCOME
- 39. HOW TO RESPOND TO OFFENDERS – WITH PERSISTENCE
- 40. RESTORATIVE JUSTICE IN MANY FORMS 40 Direct Assistance In-Direct Assistance Advocacy Victims Pastoral Care VOEG Referral Legislative Action Education Offenders Pastoral Care VOEG & GOTB + + + Referral Legislative Action Education Families Pastoral Care GOTB Referral Legislative Action Education Others Pastoral Care Referral Advocacy in all forms
Editor's Notes
- 1:30 – 2:45 p.m. Session 1
- Cain and Abel. (Genesis 4:1-16) The man had intercourse with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, saying, “I have produced a male child with the help of the LORD.” Next she gave birth to his brother Abel. Abel became a herder of flocks, and Cain a tiller of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought an offering to the LORD from the fruit of the ground, while Abel, for his part, brought the fatty portion of the firstlings of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry and dejected. Then the LORD said to Cain: Why are you angry? Why are you dejected? If you act rightly, you will be accepted; but if not, sin lies in wait at the door: its urge is for you, yet you can rule over it. Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out in the field.” When they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Then the LORD asked Cain, Where is your brother Abel? He answered, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” God then said: What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground! Now you are banned from the ground that opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand If you till the ground, it shall no longer give you its produce. You shall become a constant wanderer on the earth. Cain said to the LORD: “My punishment is too great to bear. Look, you have now banished me from the ground. I must avoid you and be a constant wanderer on the earth. Anyone may kill me at sight.” Not so! the LORD said to him. If anyone kills Cain, Cain shall be avenged seven times. So the LORD put a mark on Cain, so that no one would kill him at sight. Cain then left the LORD’s presence and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. 17-24 Cain had intercourse with his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. Cain also became the founder of a city, which he named after his son Enoch. To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad became the father of Mehujael; Mehujael became the father of Methusael, and Methusael became the father of Lamech. Lamech took two wives; the name of the first was Adah, and the name of the second Zillah. Adah gave birth to Jabal, who became the ancestor of those who dwell in tents and keep livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal, who became the ancestor of all who play the lyre and the reed pipe. Zillah, on her part, gave birth to Tubalcain, the ancestor of all who forge instruments of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubalcain was Naamah. Lamech said to his wives: “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; wives of Lamech, listen to my utterance: I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for bruising me. If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.” * [4:23–24] Lamech’s boast shows that the violence of Cain continues with his son and has actually increased. The question is posed to the reader: how will God’s creation be renewed?
- At the outset, we should note that all human efforts to administer justice are at best poor imitations of God’s justice – which we must also realize is always linked with God’s mercy. As humans came together, it happened that one person would harm another – intentionally or accidentally, gravely or slightly. The first response to crime was personal vengeance. This is often called by its Latin description: Lex Talliones. In the case of mortal injury, an Avenger of Blood was not merely allowed to exact vengeance on behalf of the victim, but encouraged to do so. This assumed that the person wronged or the victim’s Avenger had the capacity to retaliate. This was obviously not the case and a strong person might victimize others with impunity. Gradually, as social systems developed, one of the roles of the leader of a clan or tribe was to arbitrate disputes and, when necessary, to act as an Avenger of Blood for a victim or the victim’s survivors, especially when a stronger person victimized one who was weaker. As society became more organized under a central government, the concept of personal revenge colored the development of most legal systems. The principle is found in Babylonian law, under the innovative Code of Hammurabi, [1752 BC] and in the biblical books of Exodus (Exodus 21:23–27) and Deuteronomy (19:17-21) in which we hear the expression, “An eye for an eye, . . .” Retributive Justice assumed that in societies not bound by the rule of law, if a person was hurt, then the injured person (or their relative) would take vengeful retribution on the person who caused the injury. The retribution might be much worse than the crime, perhaps even death. The Babylonian and Mosaic laws put a limit on such actions, restricting the retribution to be no worse than the crime, as long as victim and offender occupied the same status in society. Punishments were less proportional with disputes between social strata -- crimes against one's social better were systematically punished as worse. And crimes against the state itself (and later the Church), were punished most severely. This is Retributive Justice. The use of barter-like methods may date back to at least 100,000 years ago, but non-monetary societies operated largely along the principles of gift economics rather than barter. When barter did occur, it was usually between either complete strangers or potential enemies. Many cultures around the world eventually developed the use of commodity money allowing the substitution of a standard commodity for other commodities. The shekel was an ancient unit of both weight and currency. The first usage of the term came from Mesopotamia circa 3000 BC. and referred to a specific mass of barley which related other values in a metric such as silver, bronze, copper etc. According to Herodotus, and most modern scholars, the Lydians were the first people to introduce the use of gold and silver coin, substituting those standardized commodities for others. These systems of substitution were reflected in criminal justice as one commodity might be substituted for another that was lost, damaged or stolen. Eventually money paid to a victim was substituted for a commodity as restitution for the injury and/or in lieu of physical vengeance. In some cases, even homicide was compensated monetarily in lieu of physical vengeance or coupled with a less severe physical vengeance.
- An alternative to the historical responses to crime.
- Interdependence (Mahatma Gandhi: “Young India” March 21, 1929, p. 93)
- Let’s define our terms.
- “the habit whereby a person with a lasting and constant will renders to each his due” Aquinas, ST II-II, 58,1. Note the individual parts – a habit; a person with a lasting and constant will; to each his due “fidelity to the demands of a relationship” Wadell, Paul J. Happiness and the Christian Moral Life: An Introduction to Christian Ethics, Sheed & Ward (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.) Lanham, MD: 2008 Justice does not establish a bond, but recognizes and honors a bond that is already there.
- Restorative Justice is a philosophy and approach that balances the needs of the victims, the offender, and the community to repair the harm caused by a criminal offense. Crime is an offense against human relationships. It breaks bonds and violates trust. In order to put things right and resolve conflict, we naturally try to find out who was hurt and we seek justice. Think about the word “Restore”. Gandhi's quotation is relevant because all significant change in the world starts with us as individuals.
- Restorative means having the power to restore. It means giving back something taken, or bringing back something to a former condition. Think about the word “restorative”. The root word is “restore”, meaning to make things like they were before. If crime is a tear in the fabric of community, then justice means repairing, rebuilding, restoring.
- Retributive Justice asks these questions: Who did it? What laws were broken? How will we punish the offender? The Retributive System asks: who done it, what laws were broken, and how will we punish the offender? This is how our justice system is set up—it’s about assigning blame and meting out punishment. It is focused on the past. Our system of justice is based on English law which came about at the time of King John and the Magna Carta in 1215. The role of justice in English law, and in US law, defines crime as an offense against the state, or the government. The state views an act of one individual against another as an act against the state and fundamentally altered how justice was delivered. Now the parties would take their case before the state – often with the support of advocates who had greater knowledge of the state – and the state would determine the outcome and extract the damage. Think of examples of prior forms of ancient justice. ie eye for an eye, barbarism, torture during the Inquisition) There is a place for our justice system. Restorative Justice views crime through a different lens.
- Restorative Justice asks these questions: What is the harm? What needs to be done to repair the harm? Who is responsible for this repair? It is focused on the future. Crime is an act against a person or the community, not “the state”. Crime hurts the victims, the communities, and the offender. Crime creates an obligation to make things right. Be aware we are talking about victims of offenders as separate distinct groups of people. We know life is not that simple: How many here have been a victim of a crime? (usually more than half) And don’t show hands, but if I asked how many have been offenders, there would be the same hands. No? So these groups are not separate. Let’s look at each of these questions more closely.
- Victims are injured, communities are injured, and even offenders are diminished by crime. Think of the feeling a child has when they have taken someone else’s belonging. Isn’t the child diminished by the action? There are relationships between everyone in a community, even ones unstated and unknown. When crime breaks those relationships, even among strangers, there is harm created. Crime is a personal conflict between human beings. Conflict caused by crime has far reaching effects on people. People who are related to the offender and the victims are effected. Like a stone tossed into calm waters, there is a ripple effect created by crime that can effect everyone in a community. Mary’s Story. Part 1 Mary has a reliable car and 2 kids. One night her car is stolen – crashed and totaled. What was the harm illustrated in Mary’s story? [elicit and acknowledge audience response] So what is the harm to Mary, to her kids, her family, her neighbors, her co-workers, her friends, her community?
- In asking this question we identify and clarify the harm that’s been done. By opening this conversation, our goal is to get clarity on the full extent of the harm. By including the victim we can learn of effects of the crime which only those directly involved can know. By including the community around the victim and the offender, we can begin to learn what part the community can play in repair the harm. By assessing the offender’s capacity to make reparation, we can gain new information about capacities and strengths the offender possesses which can be leveraged to repair the harm. Regardless of capacity, the offender is responsible. By asking this question we begin to facilitate opportunities for the reparation to take place. Part 2 Continuing on with our story about Mary… She goes to Court with the offender. The Court asks her what she wants in terms of restitution and she tells the Court that she needs a reliable car. So the court orders the offender to pay the blue book resale value of the car. ($750). How well does this repair the harm of the crime?
- Who is responsible for the repair? How will the community be prepared to accept the offender back? The offender has primary and personal responsibility for making things right with the victim and the community. In order for reparation to be successful, however, responsibility must be shared. In other words, the victim, if they wish to be involved, and the community must have a say in what harm was done and what can be done to make things right for them, the community must provide opportunities for the offender to make things right, and the justice system must provide opportunities for the victim and community to be involved, and assist the offender in developing competency and pro-social skills to facilitate his reintegration into the community. What does Mary do when the offender finishes his sentence? How will the community be prepared to accept him back?
- Repair the harm caused by crime. Reduce the risk of offenders to commit crimes in the future. Build your community and make it safer.
- Sometimes accountability and public safety are mistakenly believed to be only about putting people in our prisons and jails. There is a place for incarceration in peacekeeping, to keep the community safe, to keep the offender safe, or to assure court appearances. And people eventually leave jails. Accountability can include taking responsibility to victims and community members directly. Accountability can include taking action to make things right. In a restorative response, communities and victims, if they are willing, actively determine the response, or repair needed. These stakeholders set the community standards for behavior and consequences. Through the process and offender can feel and increased sense of obligation. Accountability does not mean the offender is punished or that retribution is exacted, and reparation is made to the victims and community, not to the government.
- People connected to and with community are very unlikely to offend against their community. Increasing competency can include offenders gaining skills which are marketable and valued in the community. All change is self change, and behavior change includes adopting new behaviors in addition to stopping lawbreaking. Restorative competency development leaves the offender stronger, more capable and connected, with a better sense of empathy and sensitivity for others in their community The justice process can help people learn to recognize their strengths and the assets in those close to and around them. Opportunities to lead, to mentor, to improve one’s community and form relationships and make better choices helps one develop skills and competencies.
- Public Safety is served when offenders are monitored & develop internal controls, when the community works together to prevent crime, resolve conflicts and reduce fear. Community justice is solution focused. Locked facilities are only for youth who are unsuccessful at being accountable to victims and communities, and they are one part of a continuum of alternative graduated response, sanctions and incentives. With Restorative Justice offenders are able to gain knowledge and skills to help them develop their own internal behavior controls. Offender time under supervision is structured and non-parent adults help monitor offenders, and develop partnerships for community policing. Juvenile Justice professionals increase public safety by serving as resources to schools and other community agencies and groups. Community members are enlisted to help resolve conflicts and be solution- focused. How many of you volunteer? What for? Why? Restorative justice encourages partnerships between the stakeholders in justice: victims, offenders, community, and the justice system.
- This logo relates to our mission of Restorative Justice. The stakeholders of justice are the offender, the victim and the community. It is our collective role in the justice system to facilitate justice between these stakeholders. This then becomes the role of government. There are three goals of restorative justice: accountability, competency development, and community prevention. Restorative Justice asks what 3 questions? What is the harm? What needs to be done to repair the harm? Who is responsible for the repair?
- To review: Restorative Justice is about repairing the harm. It is a philosophy and approach that balances the needs of the victims, the offender, and the community to repair the harm caused by a criminal offense. The key words to remember are: repair, rebuild, remediation, restore. Crime is an offense against human relationships. Restorative Justice is about repairing the harm and rebuilding those relationships between people.
- The ordinary minister of the Sacrament of Baptism Proclamation of the Gospel Assistance at the Altar Receipt of Wedding Vows Burial of the Dead Distribution of the Sacred Species Viaticum to the Dying Ministry of Charity to the Poor Along with teaching, preaching, and presiding over prayer and scripture services
- Luke 10:29-37 The Parable of the Good Samaritan. 29But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30Jesus replied, “A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead. 31* A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. 32Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. 33But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. 34He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn and cared for him. 35The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, ‘Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.’ 36Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” 37He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
- John 4:4- The Samaritan Woman. 4He had to* pass through Samaria. 5So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar,* near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.a 6Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was about noon. 7A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. 9* The Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”b (For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.) 10* Jesus answered and said to her,c “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11[The woman] said to him, “Sir,* you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep; where then can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?”d 13Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; 14but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”e 15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16Jesus said to her, “Go call your husband and come back.” 17The woman answered and said to him, “I do not have a husband.” Jesus answered her, “You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’ 18For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.”f 19The woman said to him, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.g 20Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain;* but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”h 21Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews.i 23But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth;* and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. 24God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.”j 25* The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming,k the one called the Anointed; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” 26Jesus said to her, “I am he,* the one who is speaking with you.”l 27At that moment his disciples returned, and were amazed that he was talking with a woman,* but still no one said, “What are you looking for?” or “Why are you talking with her?” 28The woman left her water jar and went into the town and said to the people, 29“Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Messiah?” 30They went out of the town and came to him. 31Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.” 32But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” 33So the disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?” 34Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work.m 35Do you not say, ‘In four months* the harvest will be here’? I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest.n 36The reaper is already* receiving his payment and gathering crops for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together.o 37For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another reaps.’p 38I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the work, and you are sharing the fruits of their work.” 39Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him because of the word of the woman* who testified, “He told me everything I have done.” 40When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41Many more began to believe in him because of his word, 42and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”q
- John 8:1-11 A Woman Caught in Adultery.* [7:53Then each went to his own house], 1while Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.* a 2But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area, and all the people started coming to him, and he sat down and taught them. 3Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle. 4They said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. 5Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.* So what do you say?”b 6They said this to test him, so that they could have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.* 7* But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them,c “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8Again he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9And in response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders. So he was left alone with the woman before him. 10Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”d 11She replied, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, [and] from now on do not sin any more.”]e
- Luke 15:11-32 The Parable of the Lost Son. 11Then he said, “A man had two sons, 12and the younger son said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’ So the father divided the property between them. 13After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings and set off to a distant country where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation.g 14When he had freely spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he found himself in dire need. 15So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him to his farm to tend the swine. 16And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any. 17Coming to his senses he thought, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here am I, dying from hunger. 18I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.”’ 20So he got up and went back to his father. While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him. 21His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son.’ 22But his father ordered his servants, ‘Quickly bring the finest robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23Take the fattened calf and slaughter it. Then let us celebrate with a feast, 24because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.’ Then the celebration began. 25Now the older son had been out in the field and, on his way back, as he neared the house, he heard the sound of music and dancing. 26He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean. 27The servant said to him, ‘Your brother has returned and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ 28He became angry, and when he refused to enter the house, his father came out and pleaded with him. 29He said to his father in reply, ‘Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. 30But when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf.’ 31He said to him, ‘My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. 32But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’”
- Luke 23:39-43 39* Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us.” 40The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, “Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? 41And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal.”v 42Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”w 43He replied to him, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”x