SUNDAY OF THE PRODIGAL SON
March 3, 2024
This coming Sunday we remember the Parable of the Prodigal Son. A Gospel that every Orthodox Christian should be very familiar with, we see the events of a young son approaching his father asking for his inheritance to go off into the world to begin a life of adventure. What is striking about the son’s request is that in normal circumstances a son would gain his inheritance after his father’s earthly life was over. Here the son asks for it in advance relegating his relationship with his father as only a means to a financial end and nothing else. How painful could this have been for the father coming from his own progeny. Nonetheless, in his limitless love for his son, the father acquiesces to his son’s requests for the family purse and allows him the freedom to leave and pursue his own will.
But aren’t we like this son, brothers and sisters? Are we not prone to forget the loving embrace and security of our Father’s kingdom mesmerized by the world? Do we not forget our roots being quick to seek new identities that are more popular and culture friendly in line with latest new thing? At first, innocently just to get away from the mundane and move out into the world as we have all have said, to grow. Of course, leaving the nest is not bad behavior in its own right as long as we remain rooted in the traditions and biblical principles of the Church. But as is evident in the Parable, the son was not rooted in his father’s house. He longed to forget his father and leave on his own terms. We can only count the ways that this straying away from the kinship of the Father has caused us pain and regret.
As the Parable comes to a dramatic conclusion, the son begins to show regret after spending his entire inheritance in loose living, debauchery, and lack of discipline, which is a common result in those who are not rooted in true identity. And some amazing events occur. The Gospel states the son, comes to himself meaning, he remembers who he truly is and who the Source of his life truly is, repents and runs back to his father. And the father welcomes him back with open arms, opening the doors to his kingdom and treasures without even questioning his past living, nor remembering the son’s past transgression. Such a heart wrenching yet wonderful Icon of repentance, forgiveness, and unconditional love.
But how do we remember the Father’s House amid the world during the coming period, brothers and sisters? There is no question that today we have access to the world in a wide array of ways that can easily cause us to forget ourselves and accept Babylon as our new home if we are not firmly rooted in our faith.
Fr. Seraphim Rose has some words for us:
Weak and forgetful, even in the midst of the Great Fast we live as though Jerusalem did not exist for us. We fall in love with the world, our Babylon; we are seduced by the frivolous pastimes of this “strange land” and neglect the services and discipline of the Church which remind us of our true home. Worse yet, we love our very captors – for our sins hold us captive more surely than any human master – and in their service we pass in idleness the precious days of Lent when we should be preparing to meet the Rising Sun of the New Jerusalem, the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There is still time; we must remember our true home and weep over the sins which have exiled us from it. Let us take to heart the words of St. John of the Ladder: “Exile is separation from everything in order to keep the mind inseparable from God. An exile loves and produces continual weeping.” Exiled from Paradise, we must become exiled from the world if we hope to return.
This we may do by spending these days in fasting, prayer, separation from the world, attendance at the services of the Church, in tears of repentance, in preparation for the joyful Feast that is to end this time of exile; and by bearing witness to all in this “strange land” of our remembrance of that even greater Feast that shall be when our Lord returns to take His people to the New Jerusalem, from which there shall be no more exile, for it is eternal.
The good news is that the Father is in constant wait for us, longing for our return to embrace us and open the salvific riches to His Kingdom. This Great Lent let us utilize that period to return to our Father through deepened repentance and faith that the Father awaits us.
Rev. Dn. Christopher Purdef
