Twenty-Fourth Sunday Year C
Rev. Thomas Kuffel
The Parable of the Prodigal Son twists our thinking. The son took his inheritance and went to a wild place exhausting himself in debauchery. Depraved, he abused himself; others abused him. Wasted, the pigsty of poverty buried him. Sadly, this narrative is common. People waste their lives on pleasures that last for moments only to lose their dignity and sanctity.
Despite our debauchery, our Father restores our dignity with his mercy, sanctifying us in his grace. Ready to welcome our return, nothing prevents our Father from forgiving us because “his mercy endures forever” (Ps 136:1). Over and over, God declares his mercy, keeping his covenant. His love and kindness are unending even when we are undeserving. Even if we come back half-heartedly, He accepts us. Yet, to receive mercy, we have to realize how lost we are!
This is today’s crisis, an Identity Crisis. Many people have lost their identity; yet our heavenly Father weaves his identity within our hearts.
“You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb. I praise you, because I am wonderfully made; wonderful are your works! My very self you know” (Ps 139: 13-14).
Unless we know who made us and why, we lose our way and become prodigal children, dehumanizing ourselves trying to define ourselves.
In reality no one loses his identity. Although many like the Prodigal Son want to change it – throw it away—we cannot. Our identity comes from our Father. He defines us—no one else. Yet, culture teaches us to create our own identity, different from that which Our Father gives us. If we are going to behold the beauty, goodness, and truth of our identity, we must recognize whose we really are: children of the Father created out of love.
Today’s identity crisis is shocking in that some 50% of children born today do not know or have a relationship with their biological father. Worse, those who do not know their biological father struggle trying to identify God as their heavenly Father.
Without a father, the Prodigal Son threw his life away seeking the powers, pleasures, and possessions of this world, which are the capital sins of greed, gluttony, and lust. So twisted, he lived in the pigsty of poverty. Finally, coming to his senses, pigs are not more precious than me, he returns home.
Deciding to return and become a slave, he still could not see, nor accept his father’s identity as a beloved son. Yet that is what we all are: Beloved of the Father. His father affirms him as he sees him a long way off and runs to meet him. The father reveals his unconditional love and reminds his son of who he is.
His father did not restore his dignity; the son never lost it. No one loses their divine identity. It is woven into the very fabric of their being. The son, as so many today, never valued it, nor realized whose they are. Twisted by shame, they never experienced the unconditional love that the Father has, no matter what they do.
The son, like so many today, value honor, money, and power more than relationship. He indulged in every pleasure, never thinking not to indulge. The more he indulged the more he devalued himself. Hardened in sin, he twisted his identity and could not see himself as beloved by the Father.
Distraught, the son remembered how his father dignified him. He wanted to taste that dignity once again, but as a slave. Before he could even beg for mercy, his father embraced, washed, and dressed him, revealing his dignity, despite being covered in the muck of his passions. Our Heavenly Father does exactly this with us. He does not exile and expel us because of our sins. He offers mercy.
This is the great fallacy of Christianity today. Many see God as a vengeful, despotic, and tyrannical god destroying those who sin. This is Satan’s lie: God is not Father, god is power. Satan distorts the Fatherhood of God for he himself hates God, especially his mercy. He makes us think fatherhood is oppressive, authoritarian, and patriarchal. Satan hates motherhood worse, for Mary gave birth to God’s Son. If you have any doubts, look at the horrific suffering women endure.
The father in the parable reveals the true nature of God’s fatherhood. Our heavenly Father allows us to seek and search for our true identity, that divine dignity, even though it means we run away into the wilds of human debauchery.
Our heavenly Father waits patiently, longing for us to recognize that our identity is woven wonderfully within his Fatherhood. We cannot remove this truth concerning our divine goodness. We only experience it especially after denigrating it with debauchery.
Proving his Fatherhood, God sends his Son, our brother, into our lives to fight, battle, and die for our love. The Son of God, Jesus, becomes the Son of Man Who reveals to us the extent of our Father’s love. He sends his Son Who empties Himself completely of his life and love only to fill our emptiness with mercy.
Our Father re-establishes our dignity when we come to our senses recognizing our need for his life and love. He does not shame us, as a good father knows his children wander, making mistakes. Yet, He needs us to come back.
When we come back, the Father embraces us by giving us his mercy. Yet to receive mercy, we first ask for it, not selfishly, but respectfully. In receiving, a revelation takes place. In order to keep it, we must be merciful. St Faustina, the witness of mercy, explains this exchange.
“I demand from you deeds of mercy, which are to arise out of love for Me. You are to show mercy to your neighbors always and everywhere. You must not shrink from this or try to excuse or absolve yourself from it. I am giving you three ways of exercising mercy toward your neighbor: the first — by deed, the second — by word, the third — by prayer. In these three degrees is contained the fullness of mercy, and it is an unquestionable proof of love for Me. By this means a soul glorifies and pays reverence to My mercy.”