Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year C

The Prodigal Father And His Two Prodigal Sons

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year C

St. Bridget Catholic Church, Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, March 27, 2022

The parable of the prodigal son is regarded by many as one of the greatest stories ever told and Jesus’ greatest parable. Up and down the centuries, artists, poets, authors, preachers, saints, theologians, lay people etc have used their gifts and skills to unpack the deep spiritual insights and truths crammed in the parable. There is a lot in it that beguiles and draws everyone to meditate, to reflect, to pray, to write or to speak about. The Gospel says,  “A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’” For that time and place, the younger son’s request is extremely insulting. He is basically saying to his Father, ‘I can no longer wait for you to die. Just hurry up and give me my share of the inheritance.’ To make such a request while the father was still alive was the same as to wish him dead. Did you notice that in his comment, in just one line, he emphasizes me? “Give me the share of your estate that should come to me.” He wanted his father’s things, but not his father. His relationship to the father was a means to the end of enjoying his wealth. Now he is tired of that relationship and wants out. So, he says, “Give me…(what) should come to me.” The father, respecting the son’s freedom consented and divided the property between them. After a few day, the younger son collected all his belongings and set off to  “chora makra” (a big empty space in Greek), translated as “a distant country” in English. While in “chora makra” he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation. He lost everything. Add to it, a severe famine struck that land. This is what happens when we live outside the space of God’s giving love. Spiritual lifelessness and dryness will definitely follow.

Then coming to his senses, he thought, “How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here am I, dying from hunger.” Even the slaves in his father’s house have enough to eat. Anybody, even the lowest level figures who are attached to the divine life have more than they need. Upon realizing it, the younger son concludes, “I shall get up and go to my father and say to him, ‘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.’” He has realized that even the hired workers have more than enough. He accepts to take the lowest position in the land of plenty over the highest position in “chora makra.” This is like St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Two Standards. The devil will offer you the biggest job possible in his empire. He will make you the Field Marshal of his army. Jesus might make you the cleaner in his army. Accept Jesus’ offer! It is better than Field Marshal in the devil’s army. The younger son realizes that even the lowest level people in his father’s realm have more than enough. So, he got up and went back to his father. While he is still a long way off, the father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. What does that prove? It proves that all this time that the son was wandering in “chora makra,” the father was looking for him, waiting, and expecting. That’s the God we serve! We think primarily of God as someone who is deeply offended by our sin. Yes, God is offended by our sin, but that’s not in a personal and psychological sense. God hates our sin because it makes us less than who we are created to be. God is not a difficult, fastidious and anxious policeman. God is like this father who watches and waits for us to come back. 

Upon seeing his son, the father runs to his son, embraced him and kissed him. In the ancient world, in Jesus time and place, a patriarch, an old man, a father, grand-father will sit in his place of honor, and people will come to him and pay homage to him. A proverb in Jesus’ time said that an old man’s cloak should never move. Which means he never walks and runs to you. You walk and run to him. But in this case, the father throws caution to the winds, runs to his son. In order words, he humiliates himself before the son who humiliated him. This captures the dynamic in the relationship between us and God. Every time we sin, we wander in the “chora makra.” Every time we sin, we insult our Father. We say give me my share of inheritance that comes to me. Nevertheless, God will humiliate himself before us who humiliated him. This is a revolution in our understanding of God as contained in this great story. As the father is hugging and kissing him, the son says to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son.” But the father cuts him off, and does not even let him finish his well rehearsed speech. The father turns to his servants and says, “Quickly bring the finest robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.” The father is dressing him up, covering his shame, and reminding him of his nobility. Everyone of us, created by God, redeemed by Christ and baptized in the Church has this sacred nobility. We can wander off in chora makra, we can throw away or soil the beautiful robe of righteousness given to us at baptism, the Father is able to restore it when we return. The ring given to the younger son reminds us of the wedding ring between the Groom, which is Christ and the Church, the bride. The father putting the ring back on the son’s finger is a kind of marriage. It is a reestablishment of a relationship. To his servants the father also says, “take the fattened calf and slaughter. Then let us celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.” This beautifully evokes other well known parables like the Parable of the Good Shepherd, who leaves the ninety nine sheep behind in search of one and when he finally finds him rejoices; think about the woman who loses one coin that worths less than a penny, and turns the house upside down. When she finds it, she throws a party. Most people will consider her crazy for throwing a party simply because she found a penny. Is she out of her mind? most people would ask. But that’s precisely it. God is crazy in love with us. In this narrative, you have the son who humiliated his father, squandered his possessions, yet, the father gives him a great feast. That’s why the Lord says “there is great rejoicing over one sinner who returns over the ninety nine who need no repentance.

The parable ends with the chilling reflection of the older son who resents what was going on. Again, the father comes out to him as he did to the younger son and pleads with him to join the party. In anger, the older son says to his father, “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.” He sees his relationship to his father as that of servitude. The younger son grabbed the divine life and then wasted it; the older son treats the divine life not as a gift, but as something he has to slave for. Each of them in a slightly different way misses the dynamic of the father. To the older son the father says, “My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours.” Don’t you get it? All you have to do is to open yourself to the divine life and it will flow into you. Once you get it, give it away, and then it increases 30, 60 and 100 fold. What you should not do is grab it, make it your own little possession or slave for it. In either case you are going to miss the dynamic. So, the father urges the older son, “But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your father was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.” What the parable does not resolve is whether the older brother came to his senses and came back to life and light again. The older brother is also lost in his own way. But will he be found?