Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year A Lk 15,1-3 11-32

Brothers and sisters, this Sunday we begin with the well-known story of the prodigal son. This is a parable that I consider to be the most beautiful of the biblical stories. What does Jesus want to teach us in this parable? What new things does he want to tell us? Jesus talks about the family, which consists of the father and his two sons. We are not talking about the mother here. Finally, in the patriarchal form of the family at the time, not much was said about women. We learn from the story that the father has a large economy, and both sons work hard on it until the younger son requests to pay his share.

Every parent expects that one day their child will become independent. Parents remain in the background for children, but everyone must stand on their own two feet, leave their birthplace, and live their own lives. This is how we read about it in the Holy Scriptures: „Therefore a man will leave his father and mother and attach himself to his wife, and there will be two in one body“?  And there are no longer two, but one tel“ (Mk 10, 7). Even so, it is a painful moment for the parent to cope with. Here, we often see many problems when parents do not understand that for their children, they should only be a consultative voice, not the last. Those parents who cannot cope and identify with the fact that this is the cycle of life usually make life miserable for their children and their husbands or wives. No matter how much a parent prepares for this, she is still very sad. It was certainly excruciating for the father from today’s Gospel when he heard about the immoral life of his younger son. Surely, even today, many people ask themselves: What have I neglected? Where did I make a mistake in education? What failed? Unfortunately, sometimes you give your sons and daughters only the best, yet they behave harshly and ugly. Let’s see how the younger son behaved. Suddenly, he had money, but with little experience, he began to surround himself with a company that was not the best. How many times do we see such young people around us? This danger greatly threatens your children and grandchildren today—the vision of getting rich quickly, preferably without work and effort. And then enjoy and don’t worry about anything.  Live, as they say, on a high leg. Well, that’s not how it works in life. Or at least not for very long. The consequences tend to be unpleasant. Even the younger son gradually began to run out of funds. The economy will not let go. If you’re spending and not making money, you’ll find out quickly that you have nothing to spend. If you were surrounded by “friends” just because you had money, you would quickly be left alone when the pouch is empty. That’s exactly how the younger son ended up. He fell so much that he was willing to get fed up with this, that the pigs ate. But no one wanted to give him any of it. After all, there is profit from a real pig, but from a slacker who did not value anything, there is no benefit from it.
The change in the sun occurs only after the situation is realized, the evangelist writes: So he stepped into himself and… (comp.: 15, 17). Yes, dear friends, sometimes a person has to fall entirely to the bottom to open his eyes and to recognize delusion. Only then did he remember his father and all the good ones. And so he makes a decision: I have to go back. As we have heard, he does not come with pride, as he did. He returns with humility and confession: „Father, I have sinned against heaven and you. “Father, I have sinned against heaven and you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son“ ( Lk 15, 24)

And what about dad? He does not condemn his son. However, his son hurt him a lot. But he forgives him and restores everything to its original state. The father defined his son’s condition as loss and death. Yes, only in such a cruel way, but the status of those who find themselves far from God can be truly defined. However, a change happened: „was dead, and came to life, was lost, and found“ (Lk 15, 24).

It is clear from the story that the Father did not forget his son and did not renounce him. Probably every day, he went to the place where he said goodbye to him—that’s the only way he could see him from afar. This is how God expects each one of us. As a good parent to your child, she runs to meet him and accepts him anew when she sees him coming.

I think it is clear who the younger son is in this story. In it, we all always get to know each other when we only want to have our lives in our hands—we want everything under control. Thank God for such painful falls, which returned us from errant paths to the open arms of our Father.

Brothers and sisters, today’s parable begins with the father’s great pain caused by his younger son and continues with the news of his lousy life. But at the end, there was the joy of his return and his confession of his sins. I wish our family gatherings would be about reconciliation and forgiveness.