The Prodigal Father!

Saturday, March 2, 2024

Mi 7:14-15,18-20; Lk 15:1-3,11-32

The parable of the ‘Prodigal Son’ is one of the most popular stories the world has ever heard. 

We have a loving father and two of his sons in the story. 

The younger one is worldly and unconcerned about his father’s feelings. However, a closer reading reveals that the younger son has been true to himself. He asks for what belongs to him. He squanders his inheritance at will (though in sinful ways). But when he comes to his senses, he does not hesitate to ‘return’ to his father, with the firm faith that his father would never turn him down. His soliloquies that dominate the Gospel proclaim his true self. 

The older son, who looks more righteous (representing the Pharisees and Scribes to whom Jesus addresses the parable), is in fact more resentful because he can’t be happy about his brother’s return. When his father tells him, ‘Your brother has returned,’ he alienates himself from the love of his father and brother. This is clear when he grumbles, ‘When your son returns.’ The sentence could only mean that he is neither a son nor a brother. 

The highlight of the story is the father, who is divided between the son who has returned and the son who is resentful. The most loving father finds himself in a truly vulnerable position. The father is the reason the younger son decides to come back. Though the younger son is ready for an impassioned appeal, the loving father never lets him conclude his confession. The father is the reason the older son is resentful. The father begs for the older son’s acceptance of his brother, who has returned. 

Jesus makes his listeners understand that, if not for the love of such a Father, no one will be justified. 

If we want to understand the difference between mercy and grace, we find it in the father. The father’s mercy gives his younger son a second chance. However, his grace throws a feast. 

The story reminds us that it is to that loving Father that we return. 

If the season of Lent calls for our repentance, let us remember that it is a ‘homecoming’ experience by which we return to the loving Father.

In fact, we return to the ‘Prodigal’ Father because He ‘squanders’ His love on His children!   

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar