My son, everything I have is yours
"Father give me the share of your estate that should come to me," says the prodigal son. This is precisely the essence of sin. God wants to give us everything, He wants to give Himself to us, because having Him, we have everything. And we often act like the prodigal son and say: No, Lord God, we do not need you, we are satisfied with your creatures.
Well, such an attitude, initially is extremely attractive, but always ends in failure and despair. After all, man cannot be far away from God. For a while, a man may not be aware of this, but eventually he will realize that if God is not visible on his horizon, then his life cannot have an ultimate meaning.
The first thoughts of returning to his father were marked by this son's self-centeredness. He does not care that he has hurt his father, that maybe his father is suffering because of him. All he understands is that if he returns to his father, it will be better for him.
The Father thinks completely different. He loves his son, even though he has so much grief because of him. He eagerly awaits his return and does not hide his joy when his son returns. He accepts him not as a prodigal but as a son. He has him dressed up so that no one has any doubts that this is his beloved son. Probably at that moment his son's egocentrism fell off and he fell in love with his father with true love. Not self-centered anymore, but as his father.
The Father's excitement clearly points to the maternal aspect of God's paternity. God's gaze is as tender as a mother's gaze upon her beloved child. In the younger son's return to his family home, one can see the sinner's return to God. In this return, God does not calculate the losses incurred and does not take offense at the man who showed him unfaithfulness and disrespect. He welcomes the sinner with all love, seeing in man the one who can overcome evil with His help. God's look at man is always a look of optimism and faith in a returning sinner. In this look, he can distinguish a man from the evil he has committed.
How different is the view of the older son. He considers himself a righteous guardian of the truth who can clearly judge his brother's behavior with his attitude. He actually considers his father's forgiveness and patient love to be foolishness and unjust. He remains sad and embittered at the sight of the love feast. With his assessment of reality, he wants to reject his father's attitude and condemns his brother to death again, who "was dead and came to life".
In the person of the older brother, you can see unhappy people who, in their world of rigor and scruples, lose God's optimistic outlook on man. These people perceive only what is black in their poor optics. Their view of another person is always a view through the prism of the committed sin. They cannot understand that their brother next door experiences a dramatic struggle with evil in various circumstances, succumbing to it and returning to God's loving embrace. These people are invited by God to enter the feast of love, symbolizing the triumph of good over evil. Entering the interior of the house is an invitation to change your thinking into thinking according to God's plan and to change your view of your brother from pessimistic to optimistic. God desires that in the Father's house we do not kill with judgments but build a community of converting sinners - to which we all belong.
The older son remains a self-centered man who does not know how to rejoice at the return of his prodigal brother. He was with his father all the time, but more by flesh than heart, and he did not learn to love like his father.
Thousands of thousands and thousands of people who in their lives have gone far from God, but then returned to Him and were truly accepted by Him as the most beloved children, are living witnesses of how deeply true is this parable of the prodigal son, who "was dead" and he came to life, he was lost and he is found ”.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george