Prodigal Son  (2^nd Sun. before Lent) Feb. 20, 2022   Luke 15: 11-31      Fr. Andrew

I was ordained on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son 9 years ago. This was quite appropriate as certainly in my teenage and early adult years I was a companion of the younger brother in my willful rejection of Father God’s path. Fortunately when seeking my inheritance from my earthly father it was only enough to party for a night or two, so I had to continue rebelling on my own limited resources which probably reduced the carnage somewhat. Thank God for His grace!

We can learn so much in this parable about God’s nature and His unconditional love towards both those of us who are attempting to live a good God pleasing life (more or less) and those of us who stray far from this path. Both the elder and the younger brother are loved equally and unconditionally and between them they represent these two diverse paths.

Many of us are seduced in a comparable manner to the younger son. We ignore the waiting arms of our dear heavenly Father as we pursue that which looks like “fun” or that which our culture teaches us is the key to happiness. Perhaps we’ll have time for God later, once we’ve “made it” and achieved our dreams. Once we’re a little older we’ll settle down, get more serous about following God we tell ourselves. While we are fully occupied in our great pursuit of earthly success, we can dream of the great reward and fulfillment that success will bring. However, worldly fun gets old and messy, and if we do manage to achieve a measure of our earthly goals, of self-centered love, wealth, and power, we soon find they are false idols. When we have a rare quiet moment, we find we are strangely unsettled inside. Like today’s prodigal, who “came to himself” and then was able to start on the path back to his waiting Father, we too must “Come to ourselves.” Our true selves. That God given image placed deep within each of us is always there, calling us home, calling us back to “ourselves.” When we stop to consider our present state, and hear His quiet voice within us, calling us back to sanity, we start to the journey back home.

It is a great gift that God gives us, complete free will without coercion or interference. It is the very gift that allows us to choose to become human, to follow God’s path. But we can also freely choose to go our own way. The result of choosing our own way rather than choosing God’s path is ultimately isolation and death, with a life of chaos and insanity along the route. The consequences of our self-willed actions are seldom pleasant for long. Often we need to hit “rock bottom” before we finally cry out to God. Rock bottom was pretty low for the younger son in today’s parable. Starving, living with the unclean pigs and envious of their food. May we wake up and run back to the arms of our Father before needing to go so low. But no matter where we are when we do “come to ourselves,” we can still choose to come back to our Father’s house, even as the lowest servant; this is a moment of wonderful grace! It is also a moment that we may need to rediscover many times along the course of our life.

“Coming to ourselves” starts when we begin to wake up to who we are. We are all God’s creation. (Wis. 2:23) “For God created man for immortality. And made him an image of His own eternity.” We are children of God most high, created to live in His light and power and strength, sheltering under His wings. This is a glorious reality! Yet while recognizing this fundamental truth, we also need to know in complete humility that who we are is a gift. It is not the result of our own behaviour for we can do nothing to earn it. We can only receive it in a spirit of humility and gratefulness. Yet, “coming to ourselves” requires action, choosing to act like the prodigal to “arise and go to our Father” repenting and asking forgiveness, intentionally returning to our place, which is waiting for us in God’s glorious family. Our calling is to cooperate with God, allowing Him to renew that image which He has placed within each of us, accepting His wish to transform us into His adopted children. We are to move from our understanding of ourselves as just citizens of earth, towards becoming true citizens of heaven, living in God’s kingdom. This is our work, here and now, while we have breath; not to think that we will get started someday when we get to heaven, but rather experiencing the peace of God, here on earth as it is in heaven.

“Peace be unto you all,” Christ continually blesses His disciples when He meets with them after His resurrection, and we are blessed in the same way by Christ several times through the priest at every Liturgy. But this peace must be welcomed and accepted for it to remain and dwell in our hearts. God’s blessings are perpetually available, but our hearts must be open to receive them. That is our work, to continually choose to open our hearts to all that God has for us. When we, like the prodigal make the first effort to return to our true home and our heavenly Father, He is already coming to meet us with wide open arms, to restore to us our inheritance in His kingdom!

The Father doesn’t even let the Prodigal son complete his rehearsed repentance speech. The son begins; “Father I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” The Father cuts him off and orders his servants (the angels) to bring him the best robe (our baptismal robe), to put a ring on his hand (signifying he is a member of the family forever), and sandals on his feet (to protect him from the thorns of the enemy as he brings the Gospel of salvation). He then sacrifices the wheat fed fatted calf (saved for the sacrifice of reconciliation – the Eucharist). The son starts towards the Father and his Father brings him fully into His kingdom, doing everything necessary to establish him back into His family. The Father has been constantly waiting and watching for his son to return, “But while he was still a great way off, his Father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.” This describes just how much God loves each of us and wishes for us to turn and find refuge, healing, and comfort in His waiting embrace. Blessed Augustine put it well “God loves every one of us, as though there were but one of us to love.”

Great Lent is given to us as the time when we are to examine our lives and attitudes and contrast how we are living and thinking, with what Christ through the Church teaches us. These last 3 Sunday’s with Zacchaeus, the Publican, and the Prodigal, we have seen how much God loves and appreciates the repentant sinner, for He can forgive and guide us when we realize how much we need God and come to Him. However at the same time, a great danger exists for us good living, rule following Church goers. Before we enter into Great Lent, we hear about the self-righteous crowd, protesting Christ going to eat with the sinner Zacchaeus, and the self-justifying Pharisee, filled with pride who scorns the repentant tax collector. Today, we see the faithful older brother who pridefully tells his father that he has never transgressed a commandment, and in anger and jealousy refuses to celebrate his dead brother’s return to the family and life.

We’ve all been there to some degree, haven’t we?  Like the older brother, feeling sorry for ourselves; “poor unappreciated me. I do this and that and who even notices? We start with this way of thinking very young in our families – especially when we have brothers and sisters, who it often seems to us fare better than we do with mom and dad. What married person hasn’t had the occasional noble martyr thought take up residence? “Look at all I’ve been doing; did they even notice? What about my needs? A little appreciation might be warranted.” This is a very dangerous state of mind. Once we start down this path, we find a certain self-satisfying comfort in being hurt. If we choose to stay hurt, to continue to indulge and dwell on our woundedness, to isolate ourselves in our minds from our perceived wrongdoer, whether our spouse, family, friends, boss, or perhaps our priest, we then start to become comfortable and justified in our thinking, often sinking into depression or worse, into self-righteous pride.

The Father loves both struggling sons completely. His love for the one can never diminish His love for the other. He is overjoyed that his youngest son, who was effectively dead has returned to life; but he is alarmed at the great danger that his beloved oldest son is now courting, through his anger, resentment, and hardness of heart. “Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him.” He allows his oldest son to vent and then blesses Him with the simple truth “Son, you are always with me and all that I have is yours.”

God never cuts Himself off from us. He is everywhere present and fills all things, the treasury of blessings and the giver of life. Christ came not to condemn the world but to save it, that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. We are always the cause when we feel cut off from God. We need to constantly ask God to show us where it is that we need to repent, to renew our relationship with Him and with our brothers and sisters, growing ever deeper in His love. Great Lent is the prescribed time to intentionally commit to renew our efforts through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. May God bless each of us in the soon to be here season of Great Lent!        Glory to Jesus Christ!