We begin with the prodigal son. The term “prodigal” literally refers to wasting money, but money is the least important thing this son wastes, as he also throws away his home, his future happiness and peace, and, most of all, his relationship with his father. And he wastes all this, as Scripture tells us, in “a life of dissipation,” implying a life of sinful self-indulgence in all matters of worldly flesh.
The second character to consider is the older son. He seems to be a good man — a faithful and obedient son. But he is also tempted to waste his relationship with his father, as he becomes resentful of his younger brother and, ironically, imitates him by also separating himself from his father: “He refused to enter [his father’s] house.”
You and I can easily relate to these two sons. Some identify more with the younger son: We have wasted so many good things God has given us in the past. We also throw away so many good things He wants to give us now in His earthly home, the Church, and we risk losing all the good things He wants to give us in His eternal home, in heaven. How many times do we squander morality, praying, the sacraments, the Scriptures, the teachings of His Church, and even the promise of heaven itself, as we pursue the things of this world like pleasure, money, comfort or “success”?
On the other hand, some may identify more with the older son. Maybe we feel pretty good about ourselves: we go to Mass every Sunday, we do everything the Church tells us. But we corrupt all that when we resent the fact that no one recognizes how holy we are, or when others less worthy than we are seem to be better off than we are. Or worse, we treat God and His Church as our private possession that no one else should share in: we fail to evangelize our non-Christian neighbor, and worst of all, we refuse to share the fullness of our Catholic faith with our Protestant and fallen-away-Catholic friends — are these not our brothers, and is not the Church their Father’s home too?
But whether we identify with the older or the younger son, we can all appreciate the father of the story — who, of course, represents our heavenly Father. He is generous in that, knowing we may abandon Him at any moment, He still shares His goodness with us: “The father divided the property between them.” He is humble in respecting our free will to choose to be with Him or not: “The younger son collected all his belongings and set off to a distant country.” He is just in that He demands that we must recognize and confess our sins as offenses against Him that make us unworthy to be called His children: “Father, I have sinned against…you; I no longer deserve to be called your son.” And He is merciful in that He so eagerly forgives us, whether we have abandoned Him or simply grown selfish in His home: “You are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must…rejoice, because your brother was…lost and has been found.”
In this holy season of Lent, let us “come to our senses,” repenting our sins and coming home to our Father’s love.
Fr. De Celles is Parochial Vicar of St. Michael Parish in Annandale.
(This article courtesy of the Arlington Catholic Herald.)
