by Jose “joesum” Sumampong, Jr.
MARCH 27, 2022
Joshua 5: 9-12 / Psalm 34: 2-7 /
2 Corinthians 5: 17-21 /
Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32
LESSONS FROM THE PRODIGALS
Word: This is Jesus’ best story. It is well crafted, cast with interesting characters and full of realistic and powerful dialogue. John R. Donahue, S.J. has analyzed this gospel story as a drama in three acts.
Act One: A younger son asks for his share of the inheritance, goes off to a “distant country,” squanders the money, suffers degradation and starvation and ends up feeding pigs and eating the garbage thrown to them. He then decides to return to his father, but he is hardly a model of repentance. His motivation is quite self-serving, “How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here am I, dying from hunger” (Lk 15:17). He resolves to return and prepares a little speech for his father, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers” (Lk 15:18-19). His journey home begins, and we can almost hear him reciting his program for forgiveness.
Act Two is the return of the prodigal. While he is still in the distance, his waiting father sees him, “has compassion” and then runs, embraces and kisses him. Jesus’ hearers would have gasped at the image of the father running, a strong cultural taboo in that society. The son launches into his little speech, but in the embrace of the loving father one part of the speech is never uttered, “treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers” (Lk 15: 9b). In another shocking gesture the father orders the son clothed in robe, ring and sandals. Far from being welcomed as a servant, the son is restored to family dignity and given the signet ring to act with the father’s authority. When I first taught this parable, I wondered about the sandals until I learned that sandals were worn by free people, while slaves went barefoot. An African-American student once said to me: “Professor, you did not have to do all that research. Haven’t you heard the spiritual that the slaves sang in hope of freedom—‘All God’s children got shoes; all God’s children have traveling shoes’?” Act Two ends, like all the parables in Luke 15, with a party. Finding must be celebrated.
In Act Three the spotlight is turned on the older brother. He is working the farm, as he has faithfully done for years. Hearing the unfamiliar sounds of partying, music and dancing, he asks another servant to find out what is going on. When he hears, “Your brother has returned,” he becomes angry and sulks outside the house. In an action as shocking as his running and embracing “little brother,” the father goes out and pleads with his elder son, who, like his brother, has his own speech; but this one reeks with resentment, “Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf” (Lk 15:29-30). The father does not debate the issue, but simply says, “’My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found” (Lk 15:31-32).
The real question of the parable is whether the elder son enters into the home with his father to join with the community in the celebration; whether he shares the joy of his father by making a reconciliation with his younger brother. The parable does not tell us what the elder brother decided.
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Order: Jesus continued and deepened this call to the same conversion process. “I have not come to invite the self-righteous to change of heart but sinners” (Lk 5:32). Coming as a source of life and light with his simple goodness and love shining through his every act, Jesus naturally drew sinners into a process of conversion. The penitent woman, Zacchaeus the tax collector, Peter himself – all were brought through conflict and encounter with Christ to true self-discovery and transformation. Christ’s teaching on the whole process of conversion is best exemplified in his parable of the Prodigal Son, or the “Forgiving Father” (cf. Lk 15:11-32). It brings out God’s special concern and unconditional love for the sinner, and the human process of acknowledging one’s sin and turning back. Clearly no sin is beyond the mercy of God. Nothing we do can ever change or diminish God’s incredible love for each of us. But we must respond (Catechism For Filipino Catholics, no. 1792).
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Realities: A man went to a Jewish rabbi and complained, “Life is unbearable. There are nine of us living in one room. What can I do?” The rabbi answered, “Take the goat into the room with you.”
The man did not believe what he was hearing … take a stinking goat into the house? But the rabbi insisted, “Do as I tell you and come back in a week.” A week later the man came back half dead, saying, “We cannot stand it any longer. That goat is filthy and smelly.” The rabbi then told him, “Now go home and let the goat out. And come back in a week’s time.”
A radiant man visited the rabbi a week later. “Life is beautiful, rabbi. We enjoy every minute of it. No goat – and only the nine of us.” Another rabbi put it this way: “The best way to feel real contentment is to lose everything you have … and then get it all back again.” (George Mikes, CONTENTMENT REGAINED)
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Direction: O LORD, the hour of your favor draws near, the day of your mercy and our salvation when death was destroyed and eternal life began. We acknowledge our sins and our offenses are always before us. Blot out all our wrongdoings and give us a new and steadfast spirit. Restore us to your friendship and number us among the living who share the joy of your Son’s risen life (Introductory Prayer For Pardon, People’s Prayer Book, no. 687).