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Lent:  Week Four

The Prodigal

 

Sr. Michele Bisby, Provincial of the US Province

One of the great delights of Jesus‘s use of parables is their ability to turn the world upside down/inside out.  In chapter 15 of Luke’s Gospel, we encounter a father and two sons.  The parabolic phenomena of turning the world upside down/inside out is exemplified in the characterization of one of the characters as “prodigal”.

When the word “prodigal” is used as a noun, we naturally assume that it refers to the younger son, implying recklessness and wasteful living.  We admire the parent’s ability to forgive such disappointing behavior.  However, when the word “prodigal“ is used as an adjective, and applied to the parent, it challenges us to re-interpret the gospel message.

The prodigal father is recklessly extravagant in his lavish welcome of a disreputable son back into the family circle.  The God that Jesus reveals to us in this parable is the Provident One of infinite abundance.  In God, there is no scarcity, no stinginess, no sparing of mercy.  God's love and mercy are limitless.  God never worries about someone receiving cheap, undeserved grace.  Jesus assures us that Providence is prodigal like the prodigal father of the disgraced son and his older brother.  Providence embraces both the missteps of our immaturity, as well as the bitterness and resentment that sometimes lurks within our maturity.  We are called to emulate the prodigal father.