A reflection on The parable of the Prodigal Son
The parable of the Prodigal Son from the Gospel of Luke reveals to us many truths about ourselves and God, the Father. In Luke Chapter 15, Jesus tells the story of a wealthy father and his two sons. His younger son asked for all of his inheritance to be given to him. After receiving his wealth, the younger son left home and spent all of his fortune. He became so poor that he desired to eat what was fed to the swine. He thus returned to his father, who had been waiting for his return and even spotted his son in the distance. The father threw a big feast at the return of his son, which angered the older son who had remained faithful and obedient his whole life. The father in this parable is a reflection of God the Father, and we are each of the sons.
God the Father delights in His children, especially in seeing them return to Him. In the parable, the father’s heart was filled with compassion when he saw his son a distance away. He did not immediately reprimand his fallen-away son, nor did he punish him. In fact, he always kept an eye out for his son to return home, as Luke had made it a point to mention. Everyone has some difficulty with their relationship and identity as a child of God because we are all imperfect beings and cannot fully comprehend the mystery of God’s love.
Through our relationship with God, we gain our identity, and from our identity in that son/ daughterhood, our mission flows. This relationship is paramount in fully living out our human dignity as the person God has called us to be. If our personal mission is above everything else, our relationship and identity are distorted. For example, if someone chooses to prioritize their mission as a successful student, that becomes their identity, then their relationship with the Father is tainted. A similar situation occurs when we prioritize our identity before establishing our relationship with God.
Praying with this passage can help us to understand the depth of the Father’s love. We can each relate to both of the sons, though not entirely at times, and compare our faith journeys with those around us. However, faith journeys should never be compared, and we should all rejoice in the homecoming of a lost child. The Lord loves His children all fully and perfectly and He knows what each of us needs. The faithfulness of the sheep who do not stray does not go unnoticed by God. The father in the parable says to his older son, “My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours” (Luke 15:31).
No one thing can fully reveal God’s heart on its own, but we all reveal an aspect of God’s heart that is unique and unrepeatable. This is a good reminder because it is easy to fall into the trap of comparison, as the older brother did in the parable. However, each of the sons revealed a part of their father’s heart that is individual to them, thus the different responses of the father to each of his sons. In the parable the older son had a distorted view of his father’s love as a finite and limited thing that is earned. This parable shows that the Father’s love is in fact not finite and its depth goes deeper than our human minds can comprehend.
The Father’s love for each of His children is so beautiful and pure. There are as many ways to get to heaven as there are souls. Each of us plays a specific role in salvation that can never be repeated, and thus explains the rejoicing of the return of the prodigal son! The older son had accepted his role and had chosen to live dutifully and obediently his whole life. A part of salvation was lost when the younger son left his father to live a life according to the flesh and other worldly things. It is so good to have friends with different faith journeys to walk alongside with, to better understand the Father’s love, each revealing a completely unique aspect of His love.
In the same way the parable of the prodigal son exemplifies the Father’s great love for His children, it also highlights His unending mercy for those who repent. No matter how bad we perceive our sins to be, the Lord will welcome us with open arms and rejoice at our repentance. We just have to choose Him over our sin, even if we will still sin after repentance. It is that act of conversion that the Father desires for us. Sometimes it is so hard to accept the Father’s mercy, and we feel unworthy of His love given our sin. God’s mercy is available to us, and He is eager for us to let Him love us. The Lord will see any act that we take towards Him, no matter how small. If it is sincere and from the heart, He will see that. This parable shows that the Father’s love and mercy are not conditional. The Lord is always waiting for you and your heart. He loves us when we are faithful and even when we are not.
