Pope: Prodigal son shows God's unconditional love for
us all
(Vatican Radio) At his
Wednesday general audience Pope Francis focused on the parable of the prodigal
son to show how God welcomes us all with an unconditional love. Even in the
most difficult situations, he told pilgrims and visitors gathered in St Peter’s
Square, God waits for us and longs to embrace us.
Pope Francis began his
reflections at the moment the prodigal son returns home, asking forgiveness for
what he has done and telling his father: “I no longer deserve to be called your
son”. But on the contrary, he continued, the only thing that matters to the
father is that his son has returned home safe and sound. Thus he runs out to
embrace him, restores his dignity by giving him clothes, sandals and a ring on
his finger, and calls for a feast to celebrate his return.
The Pope said the father’s
tenderness and mercy overflows and, in the same way, we know that even in the
most difficult moments of our lives, God waits for us and longs to embrace us
as his children. Jesus’ words, he went on, can encourage parents who worry
about their children becoming alienated and tempted by all kinds of dangers.
They can help priests and catechists who wonder if their work is all in vain.
They can even help those in prison, or those who’ve made mistakes and are unable
to see any future for themselves.
The Pope went on to explain
how this parable talks about both the prodigal son and his older brother, who
also needs to learn to accept the father’s mercy. Though he has remained at
home with his father, his words display no tenderness or thought for anyone but
himself. How sad for the father, the Pope exclaimed, with one son who went away
and the other who was never really close to him!
Both the younger son, who is
expecting to be punished, and the older son, who expects a reward for his good
behavior, are not acting according to God’s love, which transcends both reward
and punishment, the Pope said.
The two brothers do not speak
to each other, they live different lives, but neither of them lives according
to the logic of Our Lord. Their logic is overturned by the words of the father,
“let us celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead, and has come
to life again; he was lost, and has been found”. The greatest joy for the
father, the Pope stressed, is to see his two sons reunited and recognizing each
other as brothers.
Pope Francis noted that this
parable ends without our knowing how the older brother responds to the father’s
invitation to celebrate his brother’s return. Jesus is challenging each one of
us, he said, to think about how we respond to God’s invitation, to open our
hearts to his reconciling love and to become “merciful like the Father”.
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