Lost and Found

 

The Prodigal Son, is among the most recognized parables in the New Testament, (Luke 15:1-32). While there are several important themes for us to consider in the reading, the most prevalent focuses on the father and the so-called “faithful son.” Paradoxically, the prodigal son is a secondary character in the story as it relates to Jesus’ purpose in telling it.

The father characterized in the story, represents an individual whose unconditional love seems to exceed the “normal” bounds of human understanding. It’s hard to imagine a typical father or any human being for that matter, who is capable of acting with such selfless compassion and understanding.

In contrast to the father’s behavior, the reaction of the elder brother, who remains behind and steadfastly adheres to his father’s will in performing his day-to-day chores, seems all too human with regard to the homage paid to his wayward brother. He finds that he cannot or is unwilling to rejoice in the return of his delinquent brother.

 In this story Jesus reveals that the love of God surpasses all our understanding and exists in a dimension beyond anything known to man. That love is evidenced in the scene in which the father rushes out to greet the Prodigal without inquiry into his derelict behavior or his intention to repent. The father makes no inquiry into his past and  merely rejoices in his return and orders a celebration in honor of his homecoming.

But the elder son, who professes to be more worthy of the father’s love is angry and resentful. After all wasn’t he the more faithful and dutiful son who without fanfare, quietly went about his father’s business?

So, to whom do we relate…the father, the elder son, or the Prodigal? What about the reaction of the community to the father’s behavior?

 Richard Rohr writes that “Almost all religion and cultures that I know of have believed that sin and evil are to be punished and that retribution is to be demanded of the sinner in this world—and usually the next world, too. Such retributive justice is a dualistic system of reward and punishment characterized by good guys and bad guys, makes perfect sense to the ego…Mere counting and ledger-keeping is not the way of the Gospel. Our best self wants to restore relationships, and not just blame or punish. The trouble is that we have defined God as ‘punisher in chief’ instead of Healer, Forgiver, and Reconciler and so the retribution model was legitimized down through the ages…

On the other hand, the aim of restorative justice is to return the person to a useful position in the community. Thus, there can be healing on both sides. Such justice is a mystery that only makes sense to the soul…and yet the term restorative justice has only awakened our social consciousness in the last few decades. How can we deny that there is an evolution of consciousness, even consciousness of where the Gospel is leading us?” (Richard Rohr, Restorative Justice, Center for Action and Contemplation. 6/12/18)