The Prodigal Son and Our Belovedness in the Father, Part II

Selections from Part II of a talk I gave on the Parable of the Prodigal Son

Part II: The Encounter – Reconciliation and Communion

“His father caught sight of him.”  What was the father doing all this time?  When the son petitioned to leave, the Father did not plead and cling on to the son.  He lets him go, not because he did not love him.  But because the Father loved him.  In loving him, the Father allowed the son to act in freedom and exercise his free will.  The father said, “Okay, here is your share.  If you want to, you can go.  I will not stop you. The world is not pretty.  It can only offer you temporary comfort and happiness.  You can go, but know that when you go, you will experience pain and suffering.  You will experience a profound sense of loss and lacking.  You will be hurt.  You will be rejected.  But you can go.  Go, but know that this will always be your home.  You may already have your share of the inheritance that should come to you when I die, but this is still where you belong.  You are still my beloved son, no matter what.”   God never takes back what He has given.  He gave us His only begotten son to die for us – He who knew no sin was made sin for us.  God never ceases to dispense and pour out His graces to us and even more so to those who ask and seek. 

The Father must have been praying everyday.  He probably waited patiently everyday.  He looked for his son from afar.  He loved his son from afar.  Because the Father loved him, the younger son (YS) was sustained.  The Father continued to be the Father, who is love and life itself. 

When the Father saw the YS from afar, He did not wait for the son to get closer to Him, He approached him.  Our God is the God who comes.  The Scripture says that the father “had compassion.”  This compassion is a feeling that comes from the depths of the father’s very being. To be compassionate means to suffer with.  When the son was suffering out there, so was the Father.  As the son inched closer to home, he may or may not have seen the Father, but he sensed that He was in familiar territory, familial territory.  After we have drifted far away from home, from God’s loving embrace, and we begin to return, I believe that the Spirit moves us in a way that makes us want to hasten to return.  It is like that feeling when we are feeling tempted and we go on to conquer and avoid that temptation, saying “No” to the Devil because you have already said “Yes” to the Father, saying “No” to the Devil because you already know who you belong to.  We belong to the Father.  And so, the Spirit almost lifts us up and brings us to meet the Father who is constantly running towards us.  The Father ran to His son.  The Father runs to us.  He runs to us not because He needs anything from us, He runs to us because He wants us to know how much we are loved and how much more He wants to give to us.  The father ran because His Son was coming home.  He ran to initiate reconciliation.  Do we approach God in our sinfulness?  Just as the father ran to meet the son where he was, God comes to meet us where we are.  God repeatedly tells us “You are my Beloved.”  That’s all he cares about.  “You are my son and that is all I know.”  He just knows that we are His beloved and that is all that matters.  God initiates, but we must cooperate.  We need to want to go home.  We need to repent and seek reconciliation with the Father.  We need to want to reclaim our identity as His beloved.  We need to want to let God love us.  We need to let go and let God love us because He can.  He can conquer all the fears, anxieties, sins, and weaknesses that paralyze us.  He already has.  Look at the Cross.  “When we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).  Live the Resurrection.  

How much does the Father love the son?  He cut him off as he was confessing!  “Shh!  Don’t say a word.  I don’t care what wrong you’ve done or how much you’ve sinned. It doesn’t matter how much your hurt me – you’re here now and that is all that matters.”  “When he confesses like that, he will be considered worthy of more than that for which he prayed” (Athanasius).  God always gives us more than we can ever imagine of asking for.  This is grace at work.  The father embraced the son and kissed him.  Unlike the younger son who uses his hands to grasp, grab, and seize, the Father uses His hands to bless, restore, and give.  The Father does the same to us.  The father didn’t even mention the YS’ wrongdoings and past sins.  He holds us and stays with us.  The question is: do we want to be held by the Father?  Can we allow Him to do that for us?

What do you think the townspeople were thinking and saying to and about the Father?  Foolish, stupid?  What are you doing?  The father now assumed the shame and guilt of the YS.  The father didn’t care what others thought of him.  What was most important to him was his son.  God cares most about us.  He doesn’t care what people may say or think because that is not what He is defined by.  He knows who He is, and he desires to remind us who we are. 

While the son came back thinking only of asking to be a laborer in the father’s house, the father had much more in store for him.  The Father always gives to those who He loves much more than they could ever ask for.  The Father restored the identity of the son – his sonship.  This is how I viewed the imagery and symbolism: The finest robe – priestly garment perhaps.  Ring – royalty, kingship.  Sandals – shoes to walk and to preach, prophecy.  Priest, prophet and king, Christ’s threefold office in which we share by our baptism.  Without hesitation, the Father restored the wayward son’s identity and mission.  How merciful Our God is?  When we stand before Him in the confessional and we pour our hearts out to the Father, he forgives without hesitation and condition, and restores us and reconciles us to Himself, drawing us back into Communion with Him.  How unworthy, but how loved we are.  Not deserving, and so it is gift.  Because we do not deserve it, the Father gives it.  Do we receive it? 

The fattened calf is slaughtered.  Christ was killed for us.  The Father was willing to slaughter the fattened and perhaps prized calf because this lost son of His returned home.  Similarly, the Father willing and unreservedly sent His Son to die for the sinners whom He loves.  Just as the father slaughtered the fattened calf for his wayward son, the Father sacrificed His son for us.  When we return to the Father in this manner, like towards the younger son, the Father begets us “anew in the image of the glory of Christ” (Athanasius).  Just as Adam and all human race was lost, in sin, we are now found in Christ. 

This sacrifice leads to a celebration.  Indeed, the Mass, the Eucharist is a celebration, one of thanksgiving, as the word implies.  To celebrate is to give thanks.  Giving thanks for having been so loved.  The Father gives thanks that the son has finally returned and received His love, and the son gives thanks for the love the Father has given and the boundless mercy the Father has shown him.  A celebration involves multiple people.  When we return to God in the confessional, the multitudes of angels and saints and giving thanks to God for our return.  Do we give thanks for so great a gift?   

All that the father does is for his sons.  He had two sons.  The younger one was lost and has been found, was dead and has now come back to life.  What about the other son?