Jesus spoke this parable for everyone, but especially “to the Pharisees and scribes”. I’m going to suggest that Jesus was trying to teach them who God the Father really is and the kind of relationship He wants to have with all of us.

I started with a little search through the gospels to see how Jesus spoke of His Father and his relationship with Him and I’d just like to read a few passages:

Jn 5:19. Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever he does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son, and shows him all that he himself is doing;”

Jn 6:54, 57. Just as the Father who has life sent me and I have life because of the Father, so the man who feeds on me will have life because of me.

Jn 10:30. I and the Father are one.

Jn 17:1, 4: “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.

Lk 23:46. Then Jesus crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!”.

From beginning to end, the life of Jesus is His Father. It is impossible to separate Jesus from His Father. His whole life, His identity, His mission, all He does comes from His Father. And He wants that same intimate relationship for us. Here is how he ends his great priestly prayer in Jn 17.

17:26. I made known to them your name (your essence), and I will make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.

Jesus’ mission is to re-unite us with His Father. I’ve always thought the goal of life is to get to heaven, and there’s truth to that, but I’ve come to believe that there’s more. Being connected, in union, with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit includes heaven but it’s bigger. I know that when I am aware of God’s presence, and it’s not often, but when it happens, It’s like He fills every part of us.  

I’d like to go through this parable and reflect on what it tells us about the Father and His relationship with us.

The younger son asks for his share of the estate, and the father gives it to him. God respects his son’s freedom and allows him to have what he truly wants. And He doesn’t get upset that His son disrespected him. His concern is not with Himself but with His son.

I remember Msgr. Hogan would say sometimes our kids do something stupid, and he knows some parents who would say ‘how could you do this to us?”. And Msgr would say, that’s the wrong question, it’s just “how could you do this?’ It’s not about you, and we see this in the Father, He’s not concerned for Himself.

The son goes off and squanders his inheritance. Now, the father does not go after him. This especially stands out when you read all 3 parables of Luke 15. The first parable is about the lost sheep; the shepherd leaves the 99 to find the one who has wandered away and is lost to bring him back. The second is the woman who had 10 coins and loses one and searches high and low until she finds it. But in this one, the father does not go after his son. The son has to come to his senses. He has to see it; that he was much better off with his father, and that he disrespected his father and needs to apologize. He resolves to get up and go back.

As a side note, I saw in a commentary that the Greek word used for “get up” is also used with Jesus’s resurrection. When we turn around and “get up” and come back, we’re coming to life again.

And now my favorite line of the parable – while he was still a long way off. The father didn’t go after his son, but he’s out there looking. You can picture Him going out to the road every day looking, hoping, to see his son.

When He sees him, he abandons all decorum. He hikes up his garment and runs toward him even though doing so is very undignified. But He doesn’t care about that. Again, He’s not concerned about Himself. It’s all about His son.

When He meets him, He interrupts his son’s confession and tells the servants to bring a robe, a ring, and sandals for his feet. He immediately restores the son to his position in the family and calls for a celebration. All 3 parables emphasize the incredible joy in heaven over one who returns.

Now the older son, who represents the Pharisees and the scribes. His relationship with his father is not that of a son who knows his father’s love and loves him in return; it’s that of a servant who’s trying to earn his father’s blessing – “all these years I served you”. He never addresses Him as father, as the younger son does. He doesn’t speak about his younger brother as brother, but as “your son”. Nevertheless, the father loves the older son too, just like the younger son. He comes out and pleads with him to see things differently. The younger son was barefoot, rags for clothes; he was a servant. The father elevates him to be his son. The older son is already a son, but he sees himself as a servant. The father is pleading with him to see who he is, and then join in the celebration for his brother.

The parable ends there. We don’t know what the older son did. Jesus left it open-ended to let the Pharisees and scribes choose how they will respond, and of course all of us as well.

Whenever I hear this gospel, I always think of Deacon Jeff Raffensberger. He was a deacon here for many years. He shared that as a young man he left the church. His mother didn’t say anything, she let him go, but he found out later that she got friends and family to begin working the beads. Several years later he was home visiting, and he decided to be kind and go with his mom to Mass. This was the gospel that day, and Jeff was totally convicted. He was convinced God was speaking directly to him. He came back to the church and went to confession to Msgr. Hogan. For those who didn’t know Msgr. Hogan, picture a big guy, not tall but big, burly, tough, no nonsense, even a little gruff. Jeff said he was in that box over there, and after his confession, Msgr. Hogan came out of his box, gave him a big bear hug and said, welcome home. That’s our God. He has no delight, no joy in punishing the sinner, only in welcoming him back.

In the prologue of his gospel, John says that Jesus came to his own and his own received him not; but, to those who did receive Him, He gave them power to become children of God. In a certain sense we are all children of God in that God loves all of us and we’re all created in His image. We lost the likeness in the fall, but we’re all created in His image. So, we’re all children of God, but we don’t all know God as an incredibly good, strong, protecting, loving Father. We need Jesus for that.

So, brothers and sisters, as we come up for communion today, if we don’t yet know that Father, ask Jesus to reveal Him to us that we may know with certainty and assurance that we are a son, a daughter, of God, and then let us share this with others that they too may have this blessing.  God bless you all.