Sunday of the Prodigal Son

(Luke 15:11-32)

Today we continue to hear the call of the Church, guiding us toward the season of Great Lent. Two weeks ago, we began with the story of Zacchaeus, who climbed up the sycamore tree to get a glimpse of our Lord as He passed by. Last week we heard the story of the Publican and the Pharisee. And today we are presented with the moving story of the Prodigal Son. Next week we will hear about the dread judgment of Christ our Lord.

It is important to notice the wisdom of our Holy Mother Church in how she guides us and prepares us for the Fast.

If I may summarize the themes of these preparatory Sundays, we may say that the lesson of Zacchaeus Sunday is: ‘Don’t just sit there, do something!’ Zacchaeus took the initiative to climb up the tree in order to see the Lord and his action was rewarded by the encounter and the invitation of Christ. If Zacchaeus Sunday tells us to not just sit there, but to do something, then perhaps the lesson of the Publican and the Pharisee is: ‘Don’t just do something, sit there!’ We must not fool ourselves into thinking that all of our religious activities and observances will save us. If those activities don’t humble our heart and mind and bring us to a point of contrition and stillness and reverence before God, then we are on the wrong track. Next week’s Gospel regarding the great judgment seat of Christ also underscores for us the purpose and the point of our Christian life. When we stand before the dread judgment seat of our Lord, what will He ask of us? He will ask us if we fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, visited the sick. In all of our encounters and interactions with people, we encounter the image of Christ our Lord. How have we responded to Him?

In all of these preparatory Sundays the Church is exhorting us over and over again to a proper understanding of what the Lenten season is really all about. So much of our attention, and perhaps our apprehension, as we look toward Great Lent is focused on the externals: all the things we should do or should not do – the fasting, the additional prayers and services, reducing worldly distractions, etc.. Yes, Great Lent guides us toward what we should do and should not do, but hopefully that guidance is more toward how we should be and how we should not be.

And today’s Gospel of the Prodigal Son illustrates this for us in the beautiful and moving story of the interactions of the father and his two sons.

In this parable, our Lord tells us of a man who had two sons. These sons lived with their father where all that was necessary and good for their wellbeing was provided and available. In addition, the father had seen to it that each son would receive a generous inheritance of his wealth to take care of their future needs.

The younger son, demonstrating impatience and succumbing to the seductions of the world, asked for his inheritance in advance and left his home to go to a far country where he wasted his money and himself on the lusts of this world. After he had already squandered his fortune and reached his lowest point, The Gospel tells us that he ‘came to himself’ and reasoned that he might return home - even if he could only be hired on as a servant within his father’s estate. And so, he took action and in humility he returned to his home. The Gospel tells us that while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran and fell upon his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, I am no longer worthy to be called thy son.’ But the father was overjoyed to recover this lost sheep that was his son and commanded that a great feast be prepared in celebration of the return of he who was lost and is now found.

But the parable goes on to tell us about the other son; the faithful son, who had stayed behind all those years and diligently carried out his father’s work, doing everything right and remaining home at his father’s side. This son became upset when he saw all the fuss being lavished upon his wayward brother. We read in the Gospel that he was angry and would not go in to the feast. His father came out to him to invite and encourage him to come into the feast, but the brother replied: ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this young son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’ The father replied: ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’

This parable has much to teach us about the perils of the seductions of the world and how we can become so lost, straying far from the love of our father. It illustrates so clearly that moment of true repentance, when the prodigal son ‘comes to himself’ and turns away from his prodigality to return home. It also shows us the wrong spirit of the dutiful son, who is much like last week’s pharisee, thinking that his good deeds justified himself and gave him the right to judge his brother. But perhaps more than either of these attributes of the sons, this parable shows us the love of the father, which is an illustration of the unchanging love of God. The father seeks out both of his sons – awaiting the return of the prodigal and softening the hardheartedness of the elder brother. Both sons enter into the fulness of the love of their father when their hearts are set aright.

And so, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us hear the voice of the Church, that voice which strives to set our hearts aright. She is calling out to us in all of these pre-Lenten Gospels to prepare us properly for the Fast. The disciplines and the efforts we undertake for Great Lent should be an expression of our love for God and the fruit of those disciplines and efforts should strengthen that love for God, drawing us into a closer union with Him.

Let us enter into the season of Lent with our eyes open to the magnificence and the generosity of the love of God. A love into which we are invited and from which we may be inspired with all of our heart and mind and soul and strength to love God in return with gratitude and determination!