Luke 15:1–3, 11–3 ESV – Bible Gateway
The Gospel starts with three verses giving context to what Jesus is replying to. The Pharisees and scribes focus only on apparent scandal and do not see Jesus’ mission to come to save sinners. He tells three parables on the common theme of something being lost and then being found, starting with the parables of the “Lost Sheep” and the “Lost Coin” before proceeding on to the parable referenced today.
This is commonly referred to as the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and there has been plenty of homilies and commentaries and why the common title might not be the best. As Brant Pitre references, “whatever you call the parable has an effect on the way you interpret it because it puts a certain emphasis somewhere.”[1] This is true, and what you read can be narrowed by the interpretive lens you use. Others have come up with titles that emphasize the merciful father or the two sons. Brant Pitre proposes “The Parable of the Lost Son” because it is the last of three parables emphasizing this point, and the language of lost is used in the parable itself. I like the both/and approach here in that all of these titles accurately emphasize parts of this complex parable.
First off, looking at the issue of the inheritance, Rev. Pablo T. Gadenz, in his commentary, writes:
An inheritance was typically distributed after death (Num 27:8–11), but it was possible, though not advised, to do so while a person was still alive (Sir 33:20–24). However, the younger son takes the initiative here with his demand: give me my share. For him, the father might as well be dead. Under no obligation and despite the shame incurred, the father nonetheless complies out of respect for the younger son’s free decision. Since the firstborn son would receive a double portion (Deut 21:17), the younger son apparently received a third of the property. The remaining two-thirds is destined for the older son, so the father does not exaggerate when he later says, “Everything I have is yours” (Luke 15:31).[2]
The son was willing to sunder his relationship with his father and go off to a far country and live a life of the flesh. To show no concern for his relationships with his family and to be like the Epicureans, who argued that pleasure was the chief good in life. A version of YOLO, ’You Only Live Once.“ As we would expect, this did not go well for him to live a life of dissipation. When he hits rock bottom, He decides that he will arise and return to the father. The repeating of arise or ”get up“ is ”one of the verbs used for Jesus’ resurrection (18:33; 24:7, 46). Thus, by his repentance, the “dead” son is already coming “to life again” (15:24, 32).”[2] He sees the effects of his sin as exile and that it is leading him into despair. He has descended to live as a beast, even envying the very food he feeds the pigs.
This son’s motive to return to the father is still quite imperfect. He was motivated primarily to place himself in a better position as he realized his previous circumstances were materially better. On his way, he is practicing his speech in how he would be able to reconcile with his father. Still, sin has taught him some humility as he is not just blaming the famine for being brought low. Willing to work as a hired worker without any entitlement.
That he had been in a far-off country was no deterrent to his father, who still saw him when he was a long way off. He allows his son to start his apology but quickly moves into celebration mode. He knows his son is not perfectly contrite, but just like with us, the Father takes any movement towards contrition and will give us the grace to make that deeper. Just as in confession, sorrow for sin, even on the level of the fear of hell, is enough to be forgiven. The father’s reaction seems to be overblown, yet this is the level of mercy with which we are all treated. In the wiping away of sin, we also come to life again.
The father’s gifts have many interpretations, and this is a sampling from the Church Fathers.[3]
(St. Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, A.D. 374) He rightly returns to himself, because he departed from himself. For he who returns to God restores himself to himself, and he who departs from Christ rejects himself from himself.
(St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, A.D. 396). (de Quæst. Ev. l. ii. q. 33.) Or the best robe is the dignity which Adam lost; the servants who bring it are the preachers of reconciliation.
(ut sup.) Or the ring on the hand is a pledge of the Holy Spirit, because of the participation of grace, which is well signified by the finger.
(St. Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, A.D. 374). Or the robe is the cloke of wisdom, by which the Apostle covers the nakedness of the body. But he received the best wisdom; for there is one wisdom which knew not the mystery. The ring is the seal of our unfeigned faith, and the impression of truth; concerning which it follows, And put a ring on his hand.
If the parable had ended here, it would have already seemed complete and not as challenging. Jesus then tells of the older son working in the field and hears the celebration. Instead of the joy of seeing his younger brother again, he is filled with envy thinking he was being treated unjustly. He is not willing to acknowledge any relationship with his lost brother. He has followed all the rules and been obedient. Perhaps rather sterile obedience to follow the rules because that was what was expected and not one out of love. Possibly jealousy of the previous lifestyle of his brother.
The father reassures that everything he has is also his. The parable ends, and we are left wondering about the elder son’s reaction to this. This ties it back to how Jesus was replying to the Pharisees and scribes with the themed parables. How to view this was left to the original audience and for us. It was meant as a challenge when we are also small-hearted and can only see someone’s previous sins. When we are proud of the rules, we keep and have a similar merciless attitude towards others.
At what level do we adopt the father’s generosity?
From John Bergsma’s commentary:
Living in the “new creation” of Christ means operating by the father’s “logic” of love, forgiveness, and familial communion, both in our relationship to God and our relationships with others, both with those who seek reconciliation with us (the younger son) and with those who do not want reconciliation (the older son).[4]
This parable on a meta-level involves a history of the Tribes of Israel where the younger son is the northern kingdom which had split off and quickly started to worship other gods. “The “older son” is Judah, (the oldest patriarch not cursed by his father Jacob), the head of the southern kingdom of Judah, which to external appearances was more faithful to the LORD and still lived in the land of Judea, surrounding Jerusalem and the Temple (the “house of the Father”). [4]” The Church Fathers would go on to interpret the younger son as the gentiles, and the oldest as Israel—an interpretive scheme fitting other parables Jesus taught.
To leave off is paragraph 1439 from the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
The process of conversion and repentance was described by Jesus in the parable of the prodigal son, the center of which is the merciful father: the fascination of illusory freedom, the abandonment of the father’s house; the extreme misery in which the son finds himself after squandering his fortune; his deep humiliation at finding himself obliged to feed swine, and still worse, at wanting to feed on the husks the pigs ate; his reflection on all he has lost; his repentance and decision to declare himself guilty before his father; the journey back; the father’s generous welcome; the father’s joy—all these are characteristic of the process of conversion. The beautiful robe, the ring, and the festive banquet are symbols of that new life—pure, worthy, and joyful—of anyone who returns to God and to the bosom of his family, which is the Church. Only the heart of Christ who knows the depths of his Father’s love could reveal to us the abyss of his mercy in so simple and beautiful a way.
References
- Photo by Ben White on Unsplash
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition
- The Gospel of Luke, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Rev. Pablo T. Gadenz
- The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year C – John Bergsma
- Catholic Productions, Commentaries by Brant Pitre
- Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels, Collected out of the Works of the Fathers, Volume 3: St. Luke – Verbum
- Catholic Productions, Brant Pitre ↩
- The Gospel of Luke, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Rev. Pablo T. Gadenz ↩
- Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels, Collected out of the Works of the Fathers: St. Luke ↩
- The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year C, John Bergsma ↩
