Sometimes we can be so familiar with a particular
Gospel passage we tend to switch off after the first
few sentences. That would be a shame, especially
when this is one of the great blockbuster parables.
The Pharisees were a group obsessed with ritual
purity and Jesus’ parables of things lost and found is
his response to these barriers which excluded people
from community and from God. The real challenge
in this parable is what happens after the lost son
returns. The elder brother has ‘worked like a slave’
all those years and is understandably upset. But the
point the Father makes is that his outreach to the
younger brother will not change his inheritance. It will
cost him nothing to reach out. He has nothing to lose
by welcoming home the lost. The Father’s behaviour
towards the younger son would have been considered
extremely foolish by those around him. But the
message is clear: no matter how far we wander from
home, God is still a loving God. The elder brother has
a choice, to come to the party or to sulk in the corner.
Luke, being the excellent storyteller that he is, leaves
the reader to decide the outcome.
Today, we can try to place ourselves somewhere in
this parable. Where do you stand? We might even
think of the thousands of refugees who are displaced
around the world. Can we open our hearts and our
communities to them? Today’s parables shows us that
God returns the lost to the community, regardless of
the boundaries that we have put in place, and teaches
a lesson in radical hospitality.
"God of love, show us our place in this world as
channels of your love for all the creatures of this
earth, for not one of them is forgotten in your
sight. Enlighten those who possess power and
money that they may avoid the sin of indifference,
that they may love the common good, advance
the weak, and care for this world in which we live".
Laudato Si’, 246
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