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The Prodigal Father

This is a summary of a Fr. Gerry Creedon homily delivered at St. Charles on March 21, 2004, 4th Sunday of Lent

JESUS RESPONDED to the Pharisees concern about his association with sinners by telling the classic story of the Prodigal Son.

The younger son asked for his inheritance, sold it and squandered the money. One translation says he was involved in feckless living, another a life of dissipation. It is strange how dividing legacies can cause such trouble. I recall the warmth, faith and family unity that informed my mother's funeral. When the fourteen of us read her will the following day, we discovered that it is easier to share faith than to share property! Especially rubies! It took my family most of a year to heal hurt feelings.

The younger son found himself in the middle of a famine in a distant country, his money spent. The farmer, who hired him to feed pigs, would not even give him the pods to eat. The moment of conversion came when he came to his senses at last. He realized that his father's servants had plenty to eat. He would return to his father's house. He began to develop a confession that would open the door. He did not get a chance to make his explanations or confess his sins because the father saw him first, from afar off, ran to him, embraced and kissed him. Only then did he get to say how he had sinned against God and his own father. Almost brushing aside his confession, without further analysis of his venial or mortal sins, he ordered the finest robe. I imagine the swine had made a pig's dinner of his old outfit. He put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. To cap this extravagant welcome, he had the fatted calf killed and celebrates a feast. The son was lost and is found.

The elder brother at work in the fields hears the music and dancing. He was so irate he could not enter the house. He had never disobeyed a command and never received as much as a goat for a party. He freely confessed his brother's sin. We learn that the life of dissipation includes prostitutes! The father has to come out and plead with him assuring him of his support. "We must celebrate and rejoice because your brother was dead and has come back to life again; he was lost and is found."

A priest friend, who like myself had many brothers, told the story about a brother who had been a straight A student till he went to college, when he went haywire. He cut class, his grades suffered, he smoked pot and other weeds, and paid for all with his father's credit card. The Polish father was not impressed. Then the son cut off communication with his family for months, except for the credit card bills that kept coming. Word came that he wanted to come home before Easter, on the same Sunday that this gospel was read. All afternoon tension rose in the family as they awaited a knock at the door. The father buried himself in silence behind a newspaper. The door opened, the brothers welcomed him. His mother nervously embraced him. After a pause, the father threw aside the paper, walked to his son and gave him a hug. At this the mother said, "The Prodigal Son has returned," at which the son exclaimed, "Then, where is my party?" The father replied curtly, "Son, you have had your party!"… Peace was restored.

All of us in one way or another need to relive this story of forgiveness.

Often the church is cast as the elder brother, slower than the father to forgive. The story should be renamed The Prodigal Father, for he appears all too generous with his gracious welcome. Through the Sacrament of Forgiveness that we celebrate on April 5 before Easter, we are all challenged anew to proclaim the amazing mystery of God's mercy.

  or  2004 Homilies