The Prodigal

Fr. Frederick Edlefsen

Two brothers.  One tale.  A sinner.  A favorite son.  The father celebrated his sinner’s return.  The favorite became angry and refused to enter his father’s house.  How could a faithful son be bitter?  It’s a case of fidelity without love.  

Some people identify with the prodigal son.  Others use him to excuse their sins. But the prodigal doesn’t excuse his sins, even when committing them.  Nor does he map out an action plan: “I’ll have my fun, and when money runs out, dad will take me back and pay up.”  Some young men can be like that.  As my brother-in-law said, “Every man that lives past thirty deserves and award.”   

When the prodigal “came to himself” (Luke 15:17) he said, “I will arise and go to my father” (Luke 15:18).  Just as he impetuously followed his feckless heart into sin, he followed his enlightened heart back his father.  Sin’s grief uncovered his deepest desire: to be in his father’s house.  Like Christ after being found in the Temple, he said to himself: “Did you not know I had to be in my Father’s house” (Luke 2:49)?   

Why did the older son refuse to enter his father’s house?  He did not want to be with his brother.  He saw the speck in his brother’s eye ignoring the plank of pride in his own.  Because of pride, the older brother never followed his heart – neither when it was wrong nor when it was right.  He had nothing to do with his heart.  

For the older brother, it was about career planning.  Repentance or conversion had nothing to do with it.  He was so afraid of being wrong that he never gave himself the chance of being right – especially about life’s most important challenges: loving God and neighbor.  

What are your biggest regrets and sins?  That’s a rhetorical question.  Confess them to a priest.  Then forget it.  Reject the temptation to narrate the hamster wheel of regrets in your mind.  Stop watching those old mental “YouTube” videos.  They are temptations of the highest order, draining you of life and seducing you to beat yourself up.   You’ve confessed.  You’ve resolved to do good and avoid evil.   You’ve acknowledged your regrets. Now acknowledge what you want. “I want to be in my Father’s house.”  With Christ, take it from there.