Posted by The WORD in other words (2016) by Fr Florencio Lagura SVD – New Jersey, USA
4th Sunday of Lent – C
You and I love stories with happy endings, like “and they lived happily ever after.” The question, however, is “Can we say this after reading the parable of the prodigal son or, as some prefer, the parable of the prodigal and foolish father who followed the reasons of his heart instead of the logic in his head.
Were we dealing with an ordinary, earthly and practical father, the story would have ended with the parent showing the door to both his sons who gravely disappointed him with what they had done and told them to be on their own. They were not worthy of being taken back, the younger for wasting his share of the property in a riotous life of “drinking, singing and being merry,” the older for being so self-righteous, keeping his heart from forgiving his own brother and looking down on his own father. Yet, wonder of wonders, the father forgave both his sons and kept them in his house.
One can believe with difficulty that Jesus was trying, by means of this parable, to show that his Father, and our Father too, has a standard of forgiveness and a passion for us which is “way out of this world.” God’s love and forgiveness are beyond our human capacity to comprehend. We just have to believe and accept.
When we look at the people around us or at the violence being committed by men on their own brothers, or look at the objectively pathetic turn of events in our own friends’ and relatives’ lives, we wonder at times loudly if for these way-ward people there is still some hope for salvation. The parable Jesus told us — if understood and, more importantly, accepted — is a powerful source to be optimistic. Our optimism is based on St. Ireneus’ claim that “Man fully alive is God’s greatest glory.”
Dame Julian of Norwich, the English mystic from the 15th century, was so convinced of God’s love overcoming all human resistance at the end. She, in a language borne of an insight which is truly extraordinary claims that at the end, “All is well, all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”
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