Prodigal Primer: Are We Repentant, Rejoicing or Resentful?

User’s Guide to the Fourth Sunday of Lent

How do and should we respond to the Father?
How do and should we respond to the Father? (photo: Illustration / Annalisa Jones/Shutterstock)

Sunday, March 27, is the Fourth Sunday of Lent. Mass readings: Joshua 5:9a, 10-12; Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11-32.

Today’s Gospel is the familiar Parable of the Prodigal Son. Let’s look at each of the sons and the Father and learn what the Lord teaches. 


Repentant Son

Corruption: This is an angry young man, alienated from his father. He wants what his father has yet wants nothing to do with him. In effect, he tells his father, “You’re not dying fast enough. I want to be done with you and get what’s coming to me right now.” Here is a son who did something so insolent, ungrateful and daring as to be practically unthinkable.

Consequences: This parable does not make light of sin. The renegade son lives in anguish and depravity. So awful is his state that he becomes hungry for the disgusting mash eaten by pigs, the most unclean animal Jews can imagine. Sin debases the human person, and what was once unthinkable becomes easier and easier.

Conversion: In an almost-miraculous turn of events, he comes to his senses. Too many, especially today, suffer a darkened intellect due to the debasing effects of their sin, “for their senseless minds have become darkened” (Romans 1:21). But here, thanks be to God, the renegade son does come to his senses, thinking, “I shall arise and go to my father.”


Rejoicing Father

As the parable continues to unfold, we hear that the father sees the son “while he is still a long way off.” He was looking for his son, praying and hoping for his return. This is the Heavenly Father. Jesus is saying, “This is what my Father is like!”



Resentful Son

The sinfulness of the older brother is more subtle. Unlike his prodigal brother, he has never openly rejected his father; inwardly, though, he is not so different. Like his younger brother, the older son wants his father’s goods, not his father himself. Note: 

He is distant. The older son is the last person to find out about the feast. He is distant from his father, unaware of the happenings in his father’s life.

He is disaffected. When the older son learns of the feast and the reason for it, he becomes sullen, angry and resentful. He stays away from the feast, refusing to enter.

He is disconsolate. The father emerges from the feast to plead with his older son to come in. He loves both of his sons. Tragically, the resentful son is unmoved by this demonstration of love. He has resentful anger.

He is disrespectful. He disrespects his father to his face. He speaks of him as if he is a slave master, saying, “I have slaved for you … I have never disobeyed any one of your orders.” He views the mercy his father has shown to his brother as unreasonable and unjust. 

He is disordered. Among the older son’s complaints is that his father never gave him so much as a kid goat so that he could celebrate with his friends. But our goal in life is not to celebrate with friends; it is to celebrate with the Heavenly Father.


Response

At this point, Jesus abruptly ends the parable with the father pleading and the resentful son resisting. Does the son enter the feast or not? Why is the story unfinished? 

Because we must finish the story. 

Are we willing to enter the feast of heaven on God’s terms, or will we stand outside, resentfully demanding that heaven be on our own terms? Will you enter the feast? 

The Father is pleading with you, saying, “Come in before it’s too late.” What is your response to his plea? 

Answer him!