AN IMMORTAL TRUTH
It has been said, that if, for some reason the entire sacred Gospel would vanish and only today’s passage of the Prodigal Son and the Loving Compassionate Father would be preserved, this would be able to contain, in summary, the entire truth of the sacred Gospel, the preaching of love, the invitation to repentance and the forgiveness of our loving compassionate God. The content of this parable narration of Jesus is very well known. It is not by chance that its reading is selected for the Divine Liturgy of today’s Second Sunday of the Triodion.
Each one of us, in various circumstances of our life, chooses paths that are foreign to the will of God. We walk along these, we run many times, we murmur about their uphill ascent, and are swayed into their downhill descent. At other times, we choose outlets in roads with no exit, at other times, one way paths are imposed on us. We know people who forget to be present in our difficulty or need. We fill with despair and frustration. In all of us, however, fortunately, there is the recollection of the paternal hearth, the embrace and smile of our Father who doesn’t want anything from us except only us.
The joy of returning
Our return, which is a one way path for our salvation, becomes cause for a Paschal party to be held. No joy is so great in the paternal heart of our good God, and as the joy that our return causes.
Gospel Reading : Luke 15:11-32. The Lord said this parable: "There was a man who had two sons; and the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that falls to me.' And he divided his living between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took his journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in loose living. And when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want. So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his belly with the pods that the swine ate; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants.' And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to make merry. Now his elder son was in the field; and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what this meant. And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe and sound.' But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, 'Lo, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command; yet you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf!' And he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.'" The entire Holy and Great Lent, from beginning to end, comprises an invitation to return to the will of God. There are many times when the devil, garbed with a garment of our piety, imposes thoughts in us about the multitude of our sins and about our inability to seek the mercy of God. No sin, however, no matter how big it is, is able to deprive us of the joy of returning, because the biggest sin is merely a small drop before the ocean of God’s love. This great truth is underlined, as we already see, from the beginning of the compunctionate period of the Triodion, in order to preach a worldwide invitation of love and forgiveness on the part of the Church. All that we will hear on the night of the Resurrection, in the Catechetical Homily of the sacred Chrysostom, concerning the honor[1]loving of the Master, the parable of the compassionate Father describes them, in order to call the Christians to repentance.
The refusal to participate in the joy
The attitude of the older brother’s refusal distresses us all. This is, unfortunately, also a recognizable attitude in the journey a Christian matters. The older brother of the parable, but also of every age, is deprived of the generous heart, he is deprived of magnanimity of soul. He does not desire to participate in the joy of the brother, in the Pascha of his return. This does not deprive his brother or the guests at all, but in this way, essentially, he himself deprives and cuts himself off from a celebration, in which, whoever participates increases, and does not fall short in anything. He does not want to put forth the honor of coexistence, the joy of daily communion, so for this reason, he also complains that supposedly his father never honored him. He himself has passed onto his neck, the noose of seeking justice and he wants through this, to contain the paternal love. The Father grants Paradise, and nevertheless, the wretched older brother forgets that there, not only those who are right enter in, but also whoever “unjustly” loves, desiring fervently the return and salvation of the beloved person.
So let us ask God to grant us to taste our blessed return to the house, but also to the will of our God and Father, and let us also help for the preparation of the celebratory supper, for the return of not only one, but many of our brothers
Lord’s Voice -Feb 20, 2022