What do the stories of the golden calf and the Prodigal Son have in common? Answer: they both speak volumes about the nature of sin. Think about it. God sees an enslaved people in miserable bondage to the mightiest nation on earth. He champions their cause, smashes the armies of Pharaoh, brings them out of Egypt into freedom, and makes them His own chosen people.
And while He is giving to their leader a blueprint for their new life, they decide to worship what their next-door neighbors, the Canaanites, worshiped: power, virility, fertility, prosperity. The golden bull symbolizes all those things, and for this very reason, was a leading idol in the ancient Near East.
Now let’s look at the Prodigal Son. He has the good fortune to be born into a prosperous family and receives all good things from his father. Rather than waiting for his dad to die, he demands his inheritance now, thumbs his nose at his father, takes the money and runs. He is running after the very same idols the Israelites pursued in the desert, and blows all that he has on partying and fast living.
The food sated him. The wine exhilarated him. The carousing titillated him. But after it was all over, he found himself empty, lonely, and broke.
This is the grand illusion of sin. It is dangled before our eyes as the key to fulfillment and happiness. It is all about enjoying the gifts of creation in defiance of the Giver of those gifts, in a way contrary to His wise and loving design. And because those things were in fact created good by God, it seems to work at first. Sin initially tastes good. But ultimately, it always backfires and leaves us with an empty, aching sadness. In contrast, God’s will may at first sting, but later brings a profound joy that makes our hearts sing.
So how do the stories of the golden calf and the Prodigal Son differ? It’s really the difference between the Old and New Testatment, between a preliminary, partial revelation of God and the full revelation of God in Christ. In Exodus, God Almighty reacts to the sin with righteous anger, as He did in Genesis when He sweeps the world clean of sin through the flood. If not for Moses’ intercession, He likewise would have destroyed the bull-worshipers and started over.
In the gospel, God, the compassionate Father, looks past the sin to focus on the sinner. The older brother of the Prodigal wants punishment. The Father insists on mercy.
There is a very important point in the Prodigal story that should not escape our attention. The motivation of the son is not sincere sorrow at how badly he has offended his father. It is not even that he misses his father. He comes back because he is hungry. He admits his sin and wants pardon, yes, but it is to save his skin.
Does the Father care? Does he insist that the son’s contrition be pure or perfect? Does he even pay attention to the son’s rehearsed speech? No. He is overjoyed that the son has begun the journey home, for whatever reason. He lavishes gifts upon him before he even gets to the house. The elder brother insists that he does not deserve them. The Father does not contest that. The Prodigal deserves nothing. But the Father gives him everything.
God’s freely-given, unmerited grace precedes even our expression of sorrow. In fact, without God’s grace, we can’t make the first step on the road back to Him. He loved us when we were yet sinners, and seems to lavish the greatest graces on the most undeserving.
Ask St. Paul about this. Perhaps he writes more about grace than any other biblical author because he needed it so much more. You’ve probably heard the saying that God helps those who help themselves. Paul, the foremost of sinners (1 Tm 1:15), understood that it is quite the opposite: God helps those who can’t help themselves. That’s what grace is all about.
Dr. D'Ambrosio studied under Avery Cardinal Dulles for his Ph.D. in historical theology and taught for many years at the University of Dallas. He appears weekly on radio and TV reaching six continents and his books, tapes, videos, and CDs are internationally distributed. Information on his free resources, talks, CDs, videos and books is available on his website, www.dritaly.com.
For Dr. D'Ambrosio’s CD “Who Needs Confession?” or info on his 2005 cruise to Italy, visit www.crossroadsinitiative.com or call 1.800.803.0118.
(This article originally appeared in Our Sunday Visitor and is used by permission of the author.)
