Read Father Louis Okot's powerful message on forgiveness
The Return of the Prodigal Son sculpture by Charlie Mackesy.
“But he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.’”
We may have some sympathy for the rule-keeping older son, but it is hard not to be moved as we hear the father pleading with him to join the celebrations. Not only does the older brother refuse to come to the party, he refers to his brother as “this son of yours,” denying his own relationship with his sibling. The father, by contrast, stresses their bond: “It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.”
Is this the end of the story? Or are the two brothers reconciled and able to make a new start as the father so clearly desires? We will never know.
Yet perhaps the end of this story is up to us. We can choose how we respond to the welcome and forgiveness that God offers us so freely. We can allow our gratitude for his mercy to turn our hearts outwards to our neighbours and the whole of creation. We can turn away from division and isolation and towards relationships with each other.
May God give us the grace to end the story well.
Prayer
Merciful God,
thank you for the gifts
of forgiveness and a new start.
Help us to turn outwards,
choosing mercy over judgement,
relationship over division,
and love over hate.
Amen.
Act
Spend time thinking about the parable in the light of this reflection from South Sudan.