COMING TO OUR SENSES
Few things are more moving than to see a family not giving up on an errant son
or daughter. The parents have brought up their child but when he or she
becomes a teenager, the parents have to stand back and leave them to make their
own decisions. Often, in the absence of strong family tradition, the young
person loses their sense of direction and lands up in desperate trouble. The
parents are shocked and distressed but there is little they can do if the young
person refuses help.
The point of Jesus’ story about the errant son, the prodigal son, is that the
parents do not give up. They wait. Anxiously, hopefully and prayerfully, they
wait for the moment when their child ‘comes to his (her) senses’, sees that the
mess they are in is self-inflicted and that the way out can also be self-activated.
The young man in the story has abandoned his family, his country and his
religion (he ends up working with ‘unclean’ pigs), but the father has not
abandoned him. He waits for him, his eyes glued to the horizon, watching for
his return.
The common assumption might be that the father scolds him, demands an
explanation and maybe disinherits him. But this father embraces him, says not a
word of condemnation and invests him with a robe, a ring and sandals –
symbols that he is now in an even high state in the family than he was before.
Luke is telling us Israel has torn up the contract made in the desert, wasted its
inheritance and abandoned its destiny. In the accounts of Jesus’ trial before the
Sanhedrin this is precisely what the high priest does. But God has not
abandoned Israel. He waits. When Ukraine jumps out at us every time we
consult the media, we feel the anguish of the people – particularly the children
and the mothers who try to care for them in the absence of their menfolk,
fighting on the front line. (The media chooses to bring Ukraine to our attention
but we constantly need to remember that there is a bitter war also continuing in
Ethiopia.)
We pray. But, in a sense, even God has to wait. He cannot intervene if his
‘teenagers’ fight. He has given them freedom and wants them to use that
freedom to find a way out of the mess. In some mysterious way we cannot
understand, he does help them to open their eyes and see a way forward. But
this help is dependent on a real desire on the part of those involved to be helped.
Finally, we hear that the story ends with a celebration, a win-win event of great
joy. It is not a reward, not a victory parade. It is a moment when everyone
rejoices as they recognise the father does not judge but welcomes his son who in
his turn has learnt so much that you feel he is now twice the man he was before.
27 March 2022 Lent Sunday 4C Josh 5:9-12 2 Cor 5:17-21 Lk 15:11-32
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