The parable of the lost son

We are now on the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time and today’s gospel reading is a parable that is perhaps the most recognized by Christian believers worldwide. You can read the story of the Parable of the Lost Son only in Luke 15: 1-32 as you cannot read this from the other evangelists.

“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 inhabit-ants 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 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.”

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This is the Parable of the Prodigal Son or the Lost Son and there is a mes-sage that our Lord is telling us from this story that the father in this story is very much similar to the way God the Father loves all his children. Therefore, we must accept the reality that God is the creator of the human race and all living creatures.

What is very revealing here is that, the prodigal son was full of remorse and planned to return home to his father and even repeatedly practiced his confes-sion. So when he was still far away, the father caught sight of him and run to meet him and when they met, the son confessed to his father for the sins he has com-mitted, but the father didn’t care to listen to what his son was saying and ordered his servant to bring him the best robe and put a ring on his finger and slaughter the fatted calf for his son was lost and now he is found.

What we learned from this story is that, if we are indeed remorseful of our sins and planned to go on confession, even before you reached the confessional, God himself has already forgiven your sins. What a great blessing this is to us who are often lost and wishes to be reconciled with the Father in heaven!

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