Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
There is a line in a prayer that goes
something like this: “Dear Blessed Mother, I pray that you will
help us to see ourselves as God sees us.”
I don't remember all the details, but
many years ago one of my daughters attended a service which was
conducted by an Irish layman. As part of the service the young
people came forward individually and were told something meant just
for them. My daughter was told “Jesus is crazy mad in love with
you!” My teenage daughter came home in a state of euphoria, but of
course a few days went by and she reverted to her normal self. I
don't know if she remembers that, but I still do.
The story of the prodigal son has been
seen through many lenses. Is it about repentance? The younger son
comes to his senses and seeks forgiveness. Is it about
reconciliation? The younger son returns to the heart of the family
he had left. Is it about the Father's love as an example of God's
love? That's the interpretation we tend to favor today. The Father
is God the Father who is always holding his arms out to welcome us
home no matter how far we've gone astray. But like most of Jesus'
stories, we can find many other ways to see the parable.
The younger son, having burned through
his inheritance, isn't hoping for much; he just hopes that if he goes
back to his Father, he will have a place to sleep and a little food
in exchange for work. I think the son has reached bottom, at least
that's how the story goes. He is “employed” probably for way
below the minimum wage, taking care of pigs. His wages, whatever
they were, were not sufficient to feed him, since he wishes he could
eat some of the food the pigs are given. Jesus uses pigs
deliberately, since the people he spoke to would have nothing to do
with pigs. The younger son is so much at bottom that he swallows
what little pride he has left and returns to his father. He could
not find a job being a servant or even a slave. He rehearses his
speech, but before he can give it, his Father is all over him. Even
as the son is giving his speech, declaring that he no longer deserves
to be his son, he is just hoping to be a servant, the father is
rushing about, demonstrating that he is the son. That's the
significance of the robe and the ring and the sandals; being
shoeless was a sign of slavery; wearing a ring indicated privilege;
and being given a robe is sort of like when Jacob gave his son Joseph
a coat of many colors; it was a sign that you didn't have to do
manual work. The Father is in effect saying, “you may see yourself
as a slave, but I still see you as my son”.
The party gets started and the fatted
calf is slaughtered and there is a lot of merriment going on. The
older son hears this and calls his father out of the party. Listen
to his words: All these years I slaved for you (I know the
translation in the missalette says “I served you” but “slaved
for you is probably closer to the Greek). The older son points out
that not once did he disobey his father's orders – the son truly
believes that he has been a good slave. And of course the older son
expresses his hurt and anger. But notice that the father says, in
effect: I do not accept the idea that you are a slave to me. You
are my son and everything I have is yours.
The older son refers to the younger
one as “your son” but the father refuses to recognize this
designation as well, saying “your brother was dead and has come to
life again...”
So one thing this story does is it
reminds us that no matter what we think of ourselves, God sees us as
we really are – beloved sons and daughters – and we can imagine
that he is looking at us with a frown on his face, or making a
spreadsheet with good stuff on one side and bad stuff on the other,
and the longest column is going to determine where we end up. But
those images are just plain wrong. I am beloved, I am a favored son,
and my Father wants to welcome me home and start the party. I am a
favored son and what my Father has he gives to me.
But the other part is equally
important: he points out my brother; he is father to that person as
well, who is also a favored one. We can't say that God shows no
favorites – he sees each of us as favorite.
My daughter knew that Jesus loved her;
she'd heard that from before kindergarten. But maybe up until that
moment she didn't really let it sink in. It wasn't until an
enthusiastic Irish evangelist put his hands on her shoulders, looked
her in the eye and said, “Jesus is crazy mad in love with you!”
that it struck home.
And maybe that's another lesson from
the story of the prodigal son. God refuses to go along with how we
see ourselves, or for that matter, how we see each other.
This week is a good time to make a
resolution: when I start to have negative thoughts about myself,
when I feel that everything is going wrong and I'm not much good for
anything, when other people treat me like I'm an inconvenient object
(and unfortunately, there is a lot of that going on in nursing homes)
it's a good time to remind ourselves that that's not the way God sees
us. God is in fact, madly in love with you and with me and will
never cease to welcome us when we choose to return to him.
