The Prodigal Son

The readings for the 4th Sunday of Lent can be found at http://usccb.org/bible/readings/030616-fourth-sunday-lent.cfm

The Parable of the Prodigal Son is one of my favorite parables about the love and forgiveness of God towards all of us. It's also the perfect parable to reflect on in Lent as we journey towards Good Friday and Easter Sunday morning. This parable can be called, also, the Parable of the Older Brother, or the Parable of the Loving & Forgiving Father. Who do you relate to in the story?

We see first the prodigal son who is wasteful and self centered. He demands his inheritance from his father, goes off to a distant country and loses it all. This unnamed "distant country" is more than just a place. It is really a way of living, or a condition of the heart. The "distant country" for many of us could be leaving behind the Church and the Gospel & Christian way of life to lead a life that is not pleasing to God. A "distant country" where we do what we want without the rules and standards of the Church telling us how to live.

We are tempted, or lured, to a place where "sin" is made to look like fun. But as we find out, sin isn't fun for long. Sin is fun until a person becomes addicted to drugs. Sin is fun until drinking harms or hurts another or ourselves. Sin is fun until greed, arrogance or deception distort and bend our life out of shape and leave us isolated from God and from others. We become morally ruined. This is the "distant country" that we all have known in one way or other.

When the prodigal son comes to his senses, we have the moment of recognition: "I have sinned." It is a moment when he no longer blamed his father for being too indulgent, when he no longer blames society for being too immoral, when he no longer blamed his employer for being unfair, when he no longer blamed his own immaturity for being unwise, when he no longer blamed his genetic makeup or birth order for making him rebellious. "I have sinned!" It is in this moment that he can have a different future and a life of peace and hope for the rest of his life.

How often do we remain in our destructive, sinful patterns of living, only to blame anyone and everything else. It is through the grace that comes from God that we can say, and mean, "I have sinned." It is that child in us that we blame others. Blaming our parents for how we turned out, our family for not being supportive of us in all our needs. The boss for not recognizing the good work we do!  The list can go on and on of the people who we can blame for who we are and the choices we make.

It is a moral awakening and spiritual maturity to be able to say, "I have sinned." We are to take responsibility for our lives, our sinfulness and turn to God and say, "I have sinned." The path to Easter  for the prodigal son  and for us lies in the crucial importance and maturity to be able to say, "I have sinned."

The second path for us is the path of the older brother. How many times have we felt that people who repent shouldn't just be able to come back so easily? We feel they should suffer somehow. They should agonize, be humiliated, know pain, pay for what they have done and earn their return.

Because of the love of God, they don't have to suffer, agonize, know pain for what they have done. None of us have to. Because Someone HAS suffered, been humiliated, agonized, known pain and earned our return and that is Jesus Christ. By His wounds, we are healed. Because of Jesus Christ, we can come back home. The prodigal son came back, but now, he has a lot of work to do to restore trust in the family, to make up for lost time, to repair relationships within the family, and to rebuild what he damaged by his leaving. He will need the support, help and love of the family, including his older brother.

This is the path to Easter of the Older Brother, helping those who are coming back.

Finally, there is the father willing to take a repentant son back and seeking to bring reconciliation to his family. In our second reading from St. Paul we are called to a ministry of reconciliation, of "bridge building." There are many people out there who are great at polarization and have made a science of it. The work of bridge building  between divided people is the work of all Christians. The path of the father for all of us is to be bridge builders.

This parable in the middle of Lent speaks to each one of us, whether we're a "prodigal son," "older son," or "embracing father." Through the prodigal son, we learn to say, "I have sinned." Through the older son, we learn that we are to reach out to those who are turning back to God and His church, not resent them for returning and admitting their sinfulness. The forgiving father calls us to build bridges between those who are returning to God, and those who have never left.

Which of these three do you most relate to? The prodigal son, the older son, or the forgiving father? Each one of them shows us towards a path of closer relationship to God and to one another!.