4th Sunday of Lent
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 defence of God's scandalous love for sinners.
This parable is a drama in three acts. And each act revolves around one principal character. Dominating the first act is the Prodigal Son. The Second act is dominated by the forgiving Father; and the final Act is dominated by the jealousy of the 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." Every conversion is built on this primary moment of insight. But it is not primarily his sinful life that brought him to his senses, but its disastrous consequences. "How many paid servants in my father's household have more food than they want, and here am I dying of hunger." In the human condition there is no such thing as 'pure motivation'. We all act out of mixed motives. But that is part of the conversion process. There is nothing wrong with that. Some dismiss this as hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is the homage that human weakness pays to idealism. The very thought of what he has thrown away stops the Prodigal Son 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 sinfulness 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, and to outline the new conditions under which he is taking up residence. He will live in the servants' quarters. 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 Act.
The third and final Act is the climax of the drama. It is dominated by the reaction of the senior son, the Pharisee of the little drama. (Another level: the Jewish people). 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 membership of the new Kingdom 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. (Experience, understanding, judging, deciding). 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.