In this Sunday’s Gospel, Luke brings us the parable of the Prodigal Son—the famous story of a father’s kindness and generosity amid the selfishness of one son and the anger of an-other. This particular parable is truly about the magnificence of God—the abundance and depth of His mercy even in the face of what we might consider “a sin too big or too horrible to forgive.” In reality though, God’s mercy is bigger than any sin we could commit, His forgiving arms are big enough to reach out and draw us back to His ways.
As one reads this parable one can see how God loves us and desires to make all things anew—all things right—by bring-ing us into right relationship with Himself and with others around us. It is in these right relationships that we see and experience God’s love.
The younger son, who desires his share of his father’s estate before his father’s passing, is not in right relationship. He sees his father not as a person to love and respect, but rather as a conduit to personal wealth. He demands his inheritance now. He then continues this lack of right relationship by taking his newly found income and spending it on a dissolute lifestyle—using and abusing others and the goods of the earth for his own pleasures. In the end, he looses everything—his money and his self respect. He heads back home to his father—he who earlier would have preferred him to have died so he could collect his inheritance—in hopes of being taken back.
As we hear this gospel parable, it would be normal for us to consider how we might react if we were the father and our child who had turned away from us was now coming home—hoping to be restored to the family. Would we meet him on the road home—or would we let him come to us on his own? Would we put a ring on his finger and hug him—or would we give him the silent treatment and a cold stare? Would there be sandals for his feet (a sign of dignity in ancient times) or would there be no seat for him at the dining room table?
The gospel offers significant insight into God’s love. The father—God—runs out to meet his wayward son, drawing him into His arms and calling him back to his home. God places a ring on his finger—a sign of high status—and sandals on his feet (a sign of dignity), dresses him in fine clothing and offers a feast to celebrate his return (there is more joy over one sinner returning home than there is for a multitude of the righteous)—all this to show us the power, the depth, and the magnificence of God’s forgiveness and mercy. A little different from the conditional mercy and forgiveness we humans might offer.
Then there is still the issue of the older son who also is not in right relationship with his father or his brother. This older sibling allows anger to filter out the love and compassion that God desires us to have for one another. Rather than rejoicing that his younger sibling has returned to the fold, as it were, he instead allows anger and envy to cloud his judgment: he questions his father as to why he “has gone weak,” if you will, enabling the wretchedness of his younger brother to stand. This older brother is indeed seeing with cloudy vision—he misses the power of the father’s love which transforms the younger son and enables con-trition to take hold of his heart and redemption to occur.
As we journey into the fourth week of Lent, let us con-sider the love and compassion, the mercy and forgiveness of God our Father—and see in this father’s active love that goes out to meet the wayward son and bring him back into the family—a call to each one of us that God not only stands ready to welcome us back, but that God comes toward us in His Word of Truth in Sa-cred Scripture, that God comes toward us in the community of believers in which He has called us into being, and that God comes toward us in the Sacraments of the Church—particularly in the Sacrament of Reconciliation—drawing us all into His Love and His Life.
God’s mercy and forgiveness does not look at us and see through us to our past, holding us hostage to all of our past sins and failures, faults and missteps. Rather, God looks at us and to the future of who we can be—our great potential—as we are nourished and strengthened by His Word and Sacraments, as we are forgiven in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, nourished by His Word in Scripture, strengthened by His Holy Body and Blood in the Eucharist—and formed by the community of believers—the Church—that we have been called to be.
Forgiveness, mercy, and compassion—these are the gifts that bring Eternal Life.