Let’s
think about the younger son in today’s Gospel – the one who took his
inheritance and squandered it on loose living. When he came to his senses and
made his way home, the younger son rehearsed his speech to his father,
expecting the worst when he got home.
“Father,”
he repeated, over and over again, as he
walked, ” I have sinned against heaven and against you. Do not take me back as
your son but only as a hired hand.”
The
older son, on the other hand, wore a veneer of faithfulness. He seemed steady, loyal and
dependable, until his attitude was revealed when his brother came home.
“I have
slaved for you –“ the older son impressed
on his father. But the older son, too, had wasted his life, doing what he
didn’t want to do but felt obliged to do. He wasted his life on sullen,
seething anger.
When
asked which of the figures in today’s Gospel we identify with, we often say one
of the sons, but how many of us would identify with the Father?
What
the Father exercises in this story is compassion, forgiveness and welcome. In
this parable, we are called upon to be the Father.
In
other words, God invites you and me to show the same compassion to others as
God shows to us. We are called to make the Father’s life of forgiveness and
welcome our own: to be like God, to love like God, to embrace like God, to
throw a party like the Father.
Situations
arise to be like God in our lives more often than we think at first – in our
families and in our workplaces, where we play and pray. Here’s one way. We go to the hilltop and keep watch on the
road for our loved one’s return, then run to meet them. You and I know people who have been away in a
far country like the younger son – away from their family, the sacraments, away
from the Church. And we know people like the older son, who have been driven by
duty, ambition, unhealthy relationships. feel these same stirrings.
With
Holy Week and Easter coming, these family members, friends, coworkers, and
acquaintances may well have been in a far country or mired in place, rankled by
a seeming lack of appreciation at home and now feel the same stirrings.
I know
this happens in people’s lives because, over the years, I have seen these
moments of potential tenderness myself, when loved ones returned to the family,
to the faith community only because someone was compassionate with them, invited
them to return, accompanied them.
A simple
invitation may be just what they need. Not just: Why don’t you go? But: I'm going to Holy Week services this year. Why don’t you come with me for Holy
Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter Vigil?
Come
with them. Help them to follow the liturgy. As you go together, you are the
embrace of the Father, who can’t wait for the prodigals to come home.
~Sister Joan Sobala
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