it, and let us eat and be merry[1]; because this my son was dead[2], and is come to life again: he was lost, and is found.’
“Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. Calling one of the servants, he asked what these things meant. The servant said: ‘Thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe.’ And he was angry and would not go in. His father, therefore, coming out, began to entreat him[3]. But he[4] answering, said to his father: ‘Behold, for so many years do I serve thee, and I have never transgressed thy commandment; and yet thou hast never given me a kid, to make merry with my friends. But as soon as this thy son is come, who hath devoured thy substance, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.’ But the father replied: ‘Son, thou art always with me[5], and all that I have is thine. Yet it was fit that we should make merry and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is come to life again; he was lost, and is found.’”
COMMENTARY.
By this beautiful parable our Blessed Lord teaches us how willing Almighty God is to receive the penitent sinner, and how rejoiced He is at his return. Our Lord describes: i. the falling away of a sinner from God; 2. the return of the sinner to God; and 3. God’s reception of the penitent sinner.
The father in the parable signifies God; the elder son. the just; and the younger son, the sinner.
1. Man begins to fall away from God by allowing unlawful desires to take possession of his heart. In consequence, he will soon come to regard God's commandments as so many fetters, and to long for greater licence. He loses all taste for prayer and the word of God, and imagines that he would be a happier man if he could live according to his
- ↑ Be merry. “And they began to be merry.” Picture to yourselves the emotion of the son, the heartfelt joy of the father, and the rejoicing of all the servants that their master, whom they all loved and honoured, should no longer have to grieve over his lost child.
- ↑ Dead. To me.
- ↑ Entreat him. To come and take part in the rejoicings.
- ↑ But he. The elder son could not understand his father’s treatment of the returned prodigal, and in his vexation made out to himself that his father loved his brother better than himself.
- ↑ Art always with me. “You, therefore, have far more than your brother. Are you not aware of your happiness in never having left me?”
