Today's gospel reading [Lk 15: 1-3, 11b-32] is commonly known as the Prodigal Son Story. Let's dig into it. In Jesus' time, an estimated 4 million Jews lived outside the Jewish homeland. The disaspora area extended as far east as Persia. The incredible Roman transportation system expedited the movement of people all over the Empire, and it was common for younger Jewish sons to migrate. Likewise it was not unusual for a son to take custody of his putative inheritance. However, while he was allowed to take that money, invest it, and build a new life with the proceeds, under absolutely no circumstances could he jeopardize the principal. That was his father's retirement account in times to come. In violating this rule and spending the corpus on riotous living, the prodigal has stolen his own parent's future and acted as if they were dead. His action is a grievous violation of law and morality.
Worse, the prodigal has eschewed help from his own, the chosen people. The Jewish world had an elaborate network, a highly organized and efficient system, for charitable help towards any Jewish traveller or immigrant. It was well known that no Jew anywhere in the Empire would go hungry or find himself lacking accommodations. Our prodigal picks the worst conceivable alternative. He turns for help to a gentile who puts him to work as a swineherd, an occupation forbidden to Jews ,as pigs were held to be ritually unclean. In this manoeuvre our star has rejected his Jewish religious heritage with its fidelity to the Law, and his own ethnicity. One who behaves in this fashion is expected to be treated as dead by his family and Jews in general.
What finally wakes our prodigal up is starvation. Starvation leads him to realization of his sin, and acceptance of personal responsibility. From there he is called to teshuvah, moving in a new just direction or, as we would say, repentance. He decides to go home and asked to become a hired employee of his father. Under the Law, the father is supposed to execute his own son! Instead, the insane father does a series of things that no oriental patriarch would ever do!
First, he runs to see the prodigal. This would astonish early readers, knowing that no male family leader would ever do that. Second, he bestows gifts. He presents a signet ring -- sign of authority, embraces him in full forgiveness -- the greatest gift of all -- and orders his prized cattle for a quick slaughter in order to throw a welcome-home party for the prodigal! Third, the father begs his other aggrieved son to stop pouting and join the party. No son in that culture would dare disobey in this fashion,play nor would any father play into it an seek to cajole the child. Here too, deadly execution remains within his rights.
It should be terribly obvious that the crazy dad in our story represents God. God treats our pasts as forever dismissed, and encourages us also to live in the present and not be controlled by what was or might have been. Moreover, God reconciles everyone in the family, encouraging all not to be judges over each other but to love, forgive, and live into the future God has in mind for us individually and collectively. If God loves with such absolute lavish, unconditional love, how can we do less? In our New Testament reading today [II Cor.5: 16-21], Saint Paul says that we are all called to the ministry of reconciliation. "In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ." Let us ask ourselves: whom do we need to forgive or ask forgiveness of? What relationships need rebuilding? What better time is there than Lent to exeercise our ministry of reconciliation?
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