MARCH 10^th 2013. FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT

Gospel: Luke 15:1-3;11-32

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

__________________________________________________________________________________  

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

GOSPEL:                        Luke 15:1-3;11-32

The tax collectors and the sinners, meanwhile, were all seeking his company to hear what he had to say, and the Pharisees and the scribes complained. 'This man' they said 'welcomes sinners and eats with them. So he spoke this parable to them:

‘A man had two sons. The younger said to his father, "Father, let me have the share of the estate that would come to me". So the father divided the property between them. A few days later, the younger son got together everything he had and left for a distant country where he squandered his money on a life of debauchery.

'When he had spent it all, that country experienced a severe famine, and now he began to feel the pinch, so he hired himself out to one of the local inhabitants who put him on his farm to feed the pigs. And he would willingly have filled his belly with the husks the pigs were eating but no one offered him anything. Then he came to his senses and said, "How many of my father's paid servants have more food than they want, and here am I dying of hunger! I will leave is this place and go to my father and say: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as one of your paid servants." So he left the place and went back to his father.

'While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity. He ran to the boy, clasped him in his arms and kissed him tenderly. Then his son said, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son." But the father said to his servants, "Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the calf we have been fattening, and kill it; we are going to have a feast, a celebration, because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and is found." And they began to celebrate.

'Now the elder son was out in the fields, and on his way back, as he drew near the house, he could hear music and dancing. Calling one of the servants he asked what it was all about. "Your brother has come" replied the servant "and your father has killed the calf we had fattened because he has got him back safe and sound." He was angry then and refused to go in, and his father came out to plead with him; but he answered his father, "Look, all these years I have slaved for you and never once disobeyed your orders, yet you never offered me so much as a kid for me to celebrate with my friends. But, for this son of yours, when he comes back after swallowing up your property - he and his women - you kill the calf we had been fattening."

The father said:

"My son, you are with me always and all I have is yours. 
But it was only right we should celebrate and rejoice, 
because your brother here was dead and has come to life; 
he was lost and is found."'

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

The central figure in the parable of the prodigal son is the eldest son who is envious that his brother has had the “enjoyment” of living a dissolute life, and yet is welcomed home by his father with great celebration. We are all akin to the eldest son in the sense that we continue to think of sin as if it were some kind of delight that has been denied to us by an unjust father. Don Fabio’s reflection on the parable highlights the level of depravity and baseness to which a human being descends when he lives a life devoted to the satisfaction of his own desires. To think of the state of sin as if it were an enviable way of life is to fail completely to appreciate the depth and greatness of humanity. Don Fabio focuses on the moment when the sinner realizes that his efforts at self-satisfaction have left him empty and alone. In this moment, the sinner recalls his secret and true identity. He realizes that he is a child of a providential Father. This moment of truth, this “entry into himself”, is the beginning of a process that will lead him back to the house of the Father.

The Parable of the Prodigal Son is directed at those who secretly think that sin is enjoyable, and who are aggrieved when the Lord welcomes such self-indulgent sinners back into the fold.

The principal figure in the parable of the prodigal son is that of the eldest son, and this is clear when we consider the context in which Jesus recounts his parable. The Pharisees are complaining because Jesus is eating with sinners. In response ,Jesus tells them a parable that finishes with the image of a man who refuses to enter the feast; a man who is envious because (as he sees it) this sinner has had his self-centred gratification and now is being welcomed back as a hero. Jesus realizes that the Pharisees are grumbling about his association with sinners because they continue to think of sin as if it were something enjoyable that has been prohibited to them. They are envious that these ne'er-do-wells have indulged themselves in sin and yet have the joy of eating and associating with the Lord.  Jesus instead wants to show that sin is destructive and involves the loss of our most authentic identity. Anyone who thinks that sin consists in doing enjoyable acts that are prohibited has failed to comprehend the depth and greatness of the human being.

The emptiness that the son experiences is the result of the fact that he focuses only on the satisfaction of his own desires. In such a context, love is absent, and our lives unravel and become dissolute

We wish to focus on the process by which the prodigal son begins to emerge from the self-destructive cycle of sin in which he is immersed. The parable begins when the younger son asks for his share of the inheritance. A few days later he gathers up everything he has and leaves. This departure is an inevitable development. When I decide that I want to live my life in an absolutely autonomous way, then I soon cease to have a healthy relationship with those around me. So the younger son leaves and goes to a faraway place. It is important that the place be far away, because he wants to do exactly as he pleases; he wants to be the centre of his world. Here he begins to squander his inheritance. At home, the inheritance was defended and conserved by the father. Everything that we possess has its ultimate meaning in the context of love. In a context where love is absent, the life of the younger son begins to unravel. His existence becomes “dissolute”. The Greek term “dissolution” (translated as “debauchery” in the English version) has a fairly precise meaning. It signifies “one for whom there is no solution” or “one who does not have salvation”. The younger son has made himself the centre of his existence; he hungers for something but he cannot attain satisfaction because he only looks inside himself for the solution to his hunger. This unending quest for satisfaction leads him to spend everything. Loneliness is a bottomless pit into which we can pour everything we possess, but it will never be filled as long as the emphasis remains on ourselves.

Sin promises satisfaction but leaves us empty

The state of sin involves a loneliness that is insatiable. We become slaves in a “faraway country” where we are reduced to a state in which our only occupation is the “feeding of pigs.” In the Hebrew tradition the pig was considered to be an impure animal, something untouchable that belonged to the world of the indefinable. The prodigal son is thus reduced to a state where he is wholly occupied with attending to impure things. But even here his hunger is not satiated. He wishes to fill his belly with the husks that the pigs are eating, but no-one will offer him anything. This is exactly what evil does. It encourages us to take a wayward path, and then it leaves us high and dry. Sin holds out the promise of nutrition for us; it assures us that it will lead to satisfaction; but all it does is lead us into a slavery in which we cannot find the minimum genuine satisfaction or true sustenance. Sin takes us away from God and then leaves us with nothing.

If we live a life that is oriented to the satisfaction of our appetites, then we will find ourselves unhappy and alone

The prodigal son wishes to eat what the pigs are eating. Even his desires have been reduced to the point where he longs for the things that animals want. The human being thus sinks to the lowest level. But even at the level of being reduced to an animal he cannot attain satisfaction. The human being has a fundamental need for relationship, for association with someone who loves him. It is in the other that he ultimately finds his sustenance. The prodigal son, however, does not have anyone who will offer him even the minimum of nutrition. This image evokes many things that we see all around us today. The world is filled with unhappy people who have absolutized their own animal desires and find themselves in devastating isolation. They are reduced to a life of constant satiation of their basest appetites, their most depraved passions; a life in which they become more ever more isolated and lonely, and in which no-one gives them any authentic nutrition.

Salvation begins when we begin to rediscover our true and secret identity: that we are children of a providential father

At this point, the process of salvation begins for the prodigal son. The English version tells us that he “came to his senses.” This is a translation of a phrase which means that “he re-entered into himself”. What does this remarkable expression mean - “to enter into oneself”? From a state of pain and loneliness, he finally takes the right direction. Curiously, before he can return to his Father, he first has to return to himself. He has to “enter into himself” because he was previously living outside of himself, detached from the deepest truth about himself. He was pursuing an existence that was alien to what he really was. In this process of “returning to himself”, he realizes that he is not an animal, he does not eat like an animal, he is not a slave to be used by others for their ends, he is not a dissolute, a “man without salvation”. There is salvation for him. He remembers his father and his own dignity. He recalls the place where there is no shortage of the real nourishment that he needs, where there is a father who gives bread in abundance.

To embark on the road to salvation, the prodigal son must firstly enter into the most secret part of himself, his true self. His life of dissolution has not taken this true self away from him. In every human being there is a true self, the place where his secret identity lies. We must move towards this true self before we can begin our lives again. We must rediscover this hidden interior truth in which we begin to recall that we are sons and daughters, and not abandoned strangers; children of the father, and not swineherds; children of the father, and not lonely orphans. It is here that we have an intuition of our true dignity; it is from this point that salvation begins and we begin to journey towards the house of the father. Once we make the journey inside, then we begin to understand where we must go outside. At the beginning, this journey may be made for convenience, but it is convenience in the most profound sense – to seek genuine nutrition, something wholesome to eat. God takes us poor as we are, knowing that we move towards him only because we have been left with no other option. But then, gradually, he makes us worthy and gives us dignity, placing the best robe on our back, a ring on our finger, and prepares a feast in which we can truly be satisfied.