Luke's gospel relates a more famous homecoming: that of the Prodigal Son. So famous is this story that its vocabulary is common currency. It is a brilliantly crafted story with a strong element of human interest. There is no human being alive who could not identify with the emotions and sentiments involved in the story. It is worth noting its context: Jesus was not so much proclaiming his message as defending it against the attacks of the Scribes and the Pharisees. "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them", they complained. The parable is a response to this charge. It is a defense of God's scandalous love for sinners.
This parable is made up of three principal elements: the Prodigal Son's free decision to go into exile and his disillusionment with that experience; the eagerness of his father to restore him to his family and the unconfined joy on his return; and the mean-minded reaction of the law abiding, elder son.
The principal actor in the first part of the parable is the younger son, the sinner. In his character Everyman is mirrored. Fired by a longing for excitement and adventure, by the conviction that faraway hills are green, he packs his bags and flies the nest. His father makes no effort to dissuade him. God gives the sinner space. Like many adventurers before and since, his new-found liberty goes to his head. He abandons the constraints of his religion and his background, and he gives himself up to a life of reckless debauchery. But the good times do not last. He is soon impoverished and brought low. He goes through a period of starvation and humiliation. Then, Luke tells us, "he comes to his senses." It is not primarily his sinful life that brought him to his senses, but its disastrous consequences. The very thought of what he has thrown away stops him in his tracks. He makes his decision. He will return to his father, but on new terms. He will return as a servant, not as a son. The guilt of his past clings to him like a second skin.
The second part of the story is dominated by the father. He has obviously been looking out for his son, scanning the horizon in expectation of his return. He sees him in the distance and is moved with pity. He throws convention to the wind, runs to greet his son, clasps him in his arms and kisses him tenderly. The father's acceptance of his errant son is entirely unconditional. No questions are asked about his behaviour abroad. No promises are extracted from him concerning his future behaviour. The son attempts to apologise but the father cuts him short and orders the celebrations to begin: "This son of mine was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and is found." The intensity of the father's joy is the highlight of this section.
The third section is the climax of the story. It is dominated by the reaction of the senior son, the Pharisee of the little drama. This is the section that would have made his audience cringe. The one who observed all the rules finds himself an outsider at the feast. He lacks the generosity of the father. He has not arrived at the level of reconciliation Paul demands of the Corinthians in today's second reading. He cannot find it in his heart to celebrate. He will not accept his brother as a brother. To his mind, his father is every bit as irresponsible as his errant brother. He questioned the wisdom of wasting resources on a waster. In fact he is consumed with self-pity: "All these years I have slaved for you, and you never even offered me a kid to celebrate." By the end of the story, the tables have been turned. While the elder son could meet the demands of the law, he cannot find it in his heart to respond to the demands of love. And this will be the criterion for sonship in the new dispensation ushered in by Christ.
It is a wonderful story, teasing out the various ingredients of Christian repentance: recognition of our sinfulness, the will to return, the acceptance of forgiveness, and the willingness celebrate God's love and mercy with our fellow sinners. But the outstanding feature of the story is the joy of the father; the guilt of the sinner is irrelevant. A land of milk and honey awaits the returned wanderer.
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