The Prodigal Son can be taken on so many different ways and levels. It is also a story that we know so well and has been immortalised by the painting of Rembrandts return of the Prodigal Son. I would like to focus on one aspect and that is one of homecoming. Let me explain:
Imagine yourself as the younger Son, you realise that you have done some dreadful things “He had come to his senses” and he was beginning the journey back to his family. The journey must have been hard not just physically but also physiological one. He must have been wrapped in guilt and as we can see he was busy preparing his speech something that we also do in our own minds when we have done something wrong. How often do we prepare the conversation so we can make ourselves look better in others eyes. But yet the Son has a surprise on his hands.
We are told that his Father was looking at the road waiting for his arrival. And seeing his Son he dropped everything and went to greet him. Then the prepared speech is delivered but the Father wants nothing to do with it and hugs the broken worn out boy. In the Picture by Rembrandt we can see the boy looking dirty and broken. He had left with such optimism his journey home was one of humiliation. Then we see the Fathers unconditional love and forgiveness and welcome him Home by throwing his arms around him. The story then essentially is one of the Fathers love for us. The Father forgives his Son and his actions and by his love throws a party for him. Imagine such love, imagine such unconditional positive regard.
Yet where can we really find the love of God. Well we can experience his love in the kind word or action of each other but ultimately we experience the love of the Father through the sacraments. It is where we experience the love of God and his touch. The one sacrament that I would especially like to focus on is the sacrament of reconciliation. In this sacrament we go on the same journey as the prodigal son. We journey to the Church and I am sure that we rehearse what we are going to say and often this is because we worry, will the priest judge me, what will he say, how will he react? These are all questions that we may go through and then we go through the formula that we have always said. But then we like the Son in the story receive the total unconditional love of the Father through the words of forgiveness the words of absolution. We then are told to go in peace. We are forgiven our sins our faults are wiped clean. This is the sacrament of the prodigal Son and Daughter.
The one thing the one person that we have forgotten in this story is the eldest son. With this version of the story I can see the eldest Son as sometimes as ourselves waiting for the Lord to recognise us. He complains bitterly that he has had no recognition of what he has done for his Father over the last few months or even years since his youngest son has been away. We can feel the same and yet the Father’s reply is very compassionate and kind. You have always been with me but this son of mine has been lost and now is found. That he says is worth celebrating. We may feel that it is unfair that the one who has been away for so long has all the privileges he is told off and in the picture by Rembrandt he is in the back ground looking on. Often we meet people in our communities who look on in the wings. We know them by sight but we know nothing more about them. They are the ones who find coming home difficult. It is to those that we must reach out to.
So this story has so many homecomings. Our homecoming through the sacraments especially in this instance the sacrament of Reconciliation helps us then to reach out to those like the older brother on the out skirts of our parish community and welcome them in.
As you know when I come here I always like to give you a little bit of Homework. So here is yours today. This week I want to pray that you may experience the Father’s love, but I don’t want you to hold on to it. No, I want you and also a challenge for myself to give others the Father’s love to so that they may experience their own homecoming.
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