Twenty Fourth Sunday (Year C)

Twenty Fourth Sunday September 11, 2022

Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14; 1Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-32

(image courtesy: Google)

After going through the story of the Prodigal Son, a Sunday school teacher asked the kids, “At the end of the story who is it that ended up in the worst situation?” One of the kids shot up her hands and answered, “The fatted cow.” The animal-loving child was certainly correct, but the answer the teacher probably expected was “The elder son.”

On this Sunday we are presented with an overwhelming picture of God in the readings. He is a God who is all-loving and all-forgiving.  The Gospel along with the stories of lost sheep and lost coin gives us the family story of the Prodigal Son, generally understood as the greatest short story in the world.  The context of today’s parable is very important. The Scribes and Pharisees, considered themselves as followers of the law and self-righteous, grumble that Jesus is the friend of sinners and eats with them.  So Jesus tells the story about a father who is generous and forgiving. The central focus of the Parable, however, remains on the Father from the beginning to the end. The liturgy reminds us in so many ways that reconciliation and repentance are a communal responsibility and a personal one. What unites the story and makes it powerful is the abundance of love the father shows towards both his sons.

There are three main characters in the Parable of the Prodigal Son: the father, the younger son, and the elder son. The younger son is a volatile, impatient, easily bored, ready-to-try-everything teenager. He collects his inheritance, goes abroad to see the world, and squanders his birthright in loose living. He represents every sinner. In sin we squander our human and divine birthright and in the end we are no better than in the beginning. Sin promises us a life of happiness, satisfaction and excitement but in the end all we get out of it is misery, wretchedness, dissatisfaction, depression, and a loss of the sense of personal dignity that belongs to us as God’s children. The good news is that no matter how deeply the sinner sinks into sin, there is always a still, silent inner voice within us inviting us to come back to our Father’s house where true freedom and satisfaction is to be found.

Then there is the father who is so loving that he lets his rascally son have whatever he wanted. In fact we can say he even spoils the boy. We have this image of God as a very stern, demanding father who is always ready to whip us into line. This is very far from the image of God we have in this parable. Here God is presented as a tender loving father who is easy on his children, and who is always ready to forgive, no matter what. If this is how God relates to us, then we can see that God possesses the tender-loving quality of mother as well as the tough-loving quality of father.

And finally there is the elder son who is introduced towards the end of the story. If you want to describe the elder son by one word you would call him a gentleman. He is a man of honour, solid, hard-working, consistent, disciplined, and sober — a perfect gentleman. In the elder son we see the virtues, as well as the vices, of middle class morality. What are the vices of middle class morality? Arrogance, better-than-thou attitude, intolerance toward those who do not meet up to our standards, insensitivity and a spirit of unforgiveness. The elder son exhibits these vices in the way he refuses to welcome his lost and found brother, his father’s explanation and invitation notwithstanding. He must have his pound of flesh. For him it is a matter of justice, but for God that is nothing but self-centeredness and unwillingness to forgive.

by the end of the story, we see that both of them in different ways prove themselves to be obstacles to the family unity and harmony which the father desired more than anything.  That younger son reminds us of the struggle that takes place in society at this time to be successful. He convinces his father to give him his share of the inheritance and squanders the whole thing in a totally irresponsible way of living.  But on his return, there is a surprise for him when the Father receives him back and restores him back to his former dignity of a son.

The elder son despises his younger brother for leaving and his father for accepting him back.  He is now seen as an angry and hostile person. However, again the father breaks the social custom and pleads with the elder son to come in and join the celebration. The father truly wants his elder son there because he truly loves him. The elder son is not able to understand this. But the story tells us that the father loved both the sons beyond every possible human level and broke all cultural boundaries. He just goes out to love and accept his sons. This is the love proclaimed by God for us in Jesus.

The fact is that it is a marvellous story and we usually call it the "Prodigal Son" or wasteful son. But, as has often been pointed out, it is rather the story of the Prodigally Generous Father. It is the father who is the central figure. He gives generously to his younger son and also to the elder son.

 

Happy Sunday