The parable in the Gospel for today might just be the most widely read and most beloved of the Gospels. The human pathos evoked in the story is especially understood by anyone who is a parent. Losing a child is perhaps the most painful experience for any parent. However, even for those of us who are not parents, the distress of the father in this parable is readily understood.
Jesus tells us the runaway decided to return to his father – he comes “to his senses.” The boy has survived on his memories and so was humbly courageous to seek out his father. “Coming to his senses at last” meant that the goodness of the father, planted within the flesh and bones of the son, finally caught up with the young man and overcame the wayward boy’s resistance. A beautiful touch in Jesus’ parable indicates that from a distance the father was beckoning the boy home, before the son ever noticed him. It almost seems as if the father’s desire had been reaching across miles and mountains to touch the faith of the son. The son’s remembrance might even be like a passive surrender to a hidden stimulant, calling out for love and celebration.
Meditating on this Scripture passage enables us to experience the heavenly Father’s presence at the core of our existence. This story and stories like it revive memories and hopes in our own lives. It brings new life to our best self, planted in us by God. It invigorates the memories about God, inherited from our ancestors. When we remember that God was faithful to Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah and Jacob and Rachel, these memories can help us to turn our hearts towards God’s promises for us.
Out of these memories comes the joyful miracle of hope. Our greatest gift to future generations will be our witness to the hope and faith we live out even through the difficult times of our lives. That witness will become the foundation for their miracle of faith. This is how we pass on our own experience of faith to others.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator