Fr. Thomas M. Pastorius
April 17, 2016
Spiritual Ponderings
Prodigal Son

For the month of April as we transition from Lent into Easter, I would like to reflect with you on the insights of the parable of the Prodigal Son as shared with us through Fr. Nouwen’s Book: The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming and Rembrandt’s painting The Prodigal Son. Quotes from Nouwen’s book will be in bold and my commentary will be in regular font.

Not only did the younger son, who left home to look for freedom and happiness in a distant country, get lost, but the one who stayed home also became a lost man. Exteriorly he did all the things a good son is supposed to do, but, interiorly, he wandered away from his father. He did his duty, worked hard every day, and fulfilled all his obligations but because increasingly unhappy and unfree.
Sin entices us with pleasure but ultimately robs us of our freedom and happiness. Sin is like a drug it takes more and more of the same substance to reach the same level as the first high. We begin to devote all of our resources to getting that feeling. In the story of the older son he has an addiction to hate and unforgiveness. He is so caught up in these feelings that he cannot see how much the Father loves him.

The lostness of the elder son, however, is much harder to identify. After all, he did all the right things. He was obedient, dutiful, law-abiding, and hardworking. People respected him, admired him, praised him, and likely considered him a model son. Outwardly, the elder son was faultless. But when confronted by his father’s joy at the return of his younger brother, a dark power erupts in him and boils to the surface. Suddenly, there becomes glaringly visible resentful, proud, unkind, selfish person, one that had remained deeply hidden, even though it had been growing stronger and more powerful over the years.
There is a part of us who desires the idea of karma (just world theory) to be true. We feel cheated when bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people because karma gives us an idea that we can at least control our destinies a little bit. Instead we must trust God will bring good out of an evil or difficulties we face.

When I listen carefully to the words with which the elder son attacks his father—self-righteous, self-pitying, jealous words—I hear a deeper complaint. It is the complaint that comes from a heart that is countless subtle and not-so-subtle ways, forming a bedrock of human resentment. It is the complaint that cries out: “I tried so hard, worked so long, did so much, and still I have not received what others get so easily. Why do people not thank me, not invite me, not play with me, not honor me, while they pay so much attention to those who take life so easily and so casually?”
The elder son is so caught up in being a victim that He misses the loving way in which his Father responds to him. How often do we miss God’s loving responses because we think God should do things are way?

This is not a story that separates the two brothers into good and the evil one. The father only is good. He loves both sons. He runs out to meet both. He wants both to sit at his table and participate in his joy. The younger brother allows himself to be held in a forgiving embrace. The elder brother stands back, looks at the father’s merciful gesture, and cannot yet step over his anger and let his father heal him as well.
We can all get better at not judging one another.

This affectionate approach becomes even clearer in the words that follow. The harsh and bitter reproaches of the son are not met with words of judgment. There is no recrimination or accusation. The father does not defend himself or even comment on the elder son’s behavior. The father moves directly beyond all evaluations to stress his intimate relationship with his son when he says: “You are with me always.” The father’s declaration of unqualified love eliminates any possibility that the younger son is more loved than the elder. The elder son has never left the house. The father has shared everything with him. He has made him part of his daily life, keeping nothing from him. “All I have is yours,” he says. There could be no clearer statement of the father’s unlimited love for his elder son. Thus the father’s unreserved, unlimited love is offered wholly and equally to both his sons.