By Richard Clifford, S.J.
An awkward but accurate title for this famous parable is “The Lost Son and Brother.” This title preserves the interaction between three actors in the story — the two sons and the father. The story starts with the younger son who asks his father for his inheritance now, equivalently saying to his father, “you’re as good as dead to me.” Off he goes to a distant country and runs through the money. Reduced by hunger and poverty “he comes to himself,” and rehearses a speech of repentance: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”
The father catches sight of his son when he is still “far off,” suggesting the father has been constantly on the lookout for him. He runs out to meet the boy, falls on his neck and kisses him. Highly unusual for a man of dignity and wealth to run! Before the son can finish his speech, the father commands a feast to be prepared, “for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!”
The elder son working in the fields hears from a servant that his brother has returned and his father is preparing a great feast for him. He refuses to come and when the father comes to fetch him, he gets an earful: “For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!” The elder son’s speech is revealing; he thinks of himself as a servant (worked “like a slave”). He disowns his brother (“this son of yours”). What he probably resents most is that the younger son “has devoured your property,” that is, has diminished his own share of the father’s inheritance.
Responding to his anger, the father is as welcoming to him as he was to his other son: “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.” He reminds the elder son that he never considered him a hired worker, that he could have had a fatted calf to celebrate, and that the returned son is his brother.
The two sons teach us about our response to God, but the father teaches us about God. The story describes God’s governance in a fresh way. God can hardly wait to see us. God scans the horizon for our arrival, forgets our past failures, and interrupts our poor prayers to say that he is delighted to have us around.
Richard Clifford, S.J. former President of the Weston Jesuit School of Theology and Founding Dean of the Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry