Posted on marzo 28, 2025 View all Gospel Reflection
«I no longer deserve to be called your son;» (Luke 15:19a)
In our Gospel today we have the very familiar parable of the Prodigal Son. The beginning of the parable, is a bit strange to us and was in fact shocking to the Jewish audience, when the younger son said to his father to give him his share of his inheritance. When something like this was said, it meant that the younger son was saying to his father that the father was dead to him. Imagine a younger son asking you for half of your bank account, half your home’s equity, half of your cars? This affront to the father is what the younger son did so cavalierly. Yet the father allowed his younger son to act with freedom and provided him what he asked. Then the son left for a distant country.
The parable brings to light an image of the type of sin which we committed against God the Father through original sin and our personal sin. How often do we tell God to give us all the things we need to our very existence, and then head off to a distant place far from His divine presence. We are far from God, living in sin. It was in this distant land that the younger son “squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation.” (Luke 15:13) In this short phrase there are two key words “squandered” and “dissipation.” Squandered in the sense that it was for no useful purpose. Dissipation because whatever was paid for evaporated and left no lasting benefit or joy. In fact, it brought dire need. When the famine struck the land where he was living, he found that his so-called friends abandoned him now that his money was gone. He fell to the bottom of society and even longed to eat the food of the swine, but nobody gave him any — even the swine were more important than he was!
It is at this moment that he has his moment of realization that in his father’s house, even the servants have food, and so he sets off to return to the father as an unworthy servant. What Jesus inserts next is remarkable. “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.” (Luke 15:20) What seems to be happening here is that the father was always hopeful that the son would return one day. And accordingly, he searched the horizon for any sign of him.
When he saw him, he not only welcomed him, he restored him back into his position as son and a member of his family. This radical forgiveness is what Jesus was teaching his disciples that our heavenly Father wishes to extend to each of us, if we but begin our journey back to the Him with sorrow in our hearts for our sins.
In this parable, there are many ways to study the various characters, but I think for this Lent we should focus on the younger, prodigal son. We should see ourselves in him and also see how our Father is awaiting our return and searching the horizon for us. Let us take advantage of the Sacrament of Confession to set ourselves back on the right path to the home of the Father where He has prepared for us a banquet that will fill our hungry hearts and give us everlasting joy.
