The Journey of Repentance and God's Boundless Mercy
In this heartfelt sermon, Luke Ebsworthy explores the profound lessons within the parable of the Prodigal Son. Through theological insights, Luke delves into themes of sin, repentance, and divine forgiveness, drawing from patristic interpretations to illustrate the path from spiritual separation to reconciliation with God. Ebsworthy's message is a compelling reminder of the endless mercy that awaits all who seek to return to the Father's embrace.
Transcript
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today is the second Sunday of the Triodion, better known as the Sunday of the Prodigal Son. During this time of preparation for Great Lent, the Church presents us with this parable as a model of repentance. There are many patristic interpretations of this parable, and it is rich with meaning. But to explore all of these would take hours. Instead, today I'd like to focus on just one of the key messages presented here: that of the line from sin to repentance and God's mercy and forgiveness.
The parable centers on a man and his two sons, with a particular focus on the younger. Blessed Theophylact of Ohrid, Archbishop of Bulgaria and commentator on the Bible, explains that the father here represents God the Father, and his two sons represent the two kinds of people in this world.
In the parable, the older son remains in relationship with the father, symbolizing the original righteousness of human nature before the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden. The younger son, on the other hand, separates from the father, representing the reality of personal sin and its consequences.
The parable begins with the son asking his father to give him his share of the property that falls to him. While it sounds like he's asking for material goods, the word for property here, translated from the Greek, is ‘ousia,’ meaning essence or being. So rather than gold or land, the son is asking for that essence which comes to us from God the Father—being our logic, our reasoning, and, most serious of all, our free will.
Only a few days later, the son takes that most wonderful gift and leaves his father's house and travels to a far land. That far land being a far distance and separated from God, and he wastes his inheritance. Once he had squandered his inheritance, a great famine took place.
Blessed Theophylact, in his commentary on this parable, connects this famine to that mentioned in the prophecy of Amos, in which the Lord said, "I shall send a famine across the land, not a famine of bread, nor of thirst for water, but a famine to hear the word of the Lord." Having lost everything, the son takes on the lowest of low jobs, a slave as a swineherd working with pigs. To the Jewish people to whom the Lord spoke this parable, being a swineherd was considered to be the lowest of the low that a man could be. And this is to say that he had hit absolute rock bottom.
In this first part of the parable, the Lord illustrates how we fall into sin and the catastrophic consequences of that sin. When someone sins, they take that precious property given to them, their free will, and in their rebelliousness, they set off away from God. And anyone who continues on this disastrous path will find themselves as a slave to the world, feeding their passions as the prodigal fed the swine, nourishing them and strengthening them while he himself was starving, indulging the impure along with the tragic absence of the pure. A very bleak and worrying outcome.
Let us thank God, however, that the Lord didn't end the story there. For as if from an illness or a fever, the prodigal son came to himself, and he remembers the abundance of his father's house. Humbled and with sincere repentance, he decides to return to his father, determined and content to be a mere servant in his father's house. And this is the image of true repentance.
It was in this same state of repentance that King David wrote in Psalm 50, "A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit, a broken and a humbled heart, God will not despise." And it is in this state that the son makes his journey back to his father's house. It is important to note here that he does not simply feel sorry for his mistakes and carry on in the same manner, but he puts in the effort to actively change his situation. Repentance is not simply being sorry about one's sins, but as the Greek word for repentance, ‘metanoia,’ implies, it is a changing of mind, of heart, and a turning away from the old and a reorienting towards God.
And if this section of the parable paints the image of true repentance, the final part that I will address today likewise paints for us an image of God's perfect and unlimited mercy and is a type for that which we receive in the sacrament of confession. The Lord goes on to say that when the prodigal was still a great way off, the father saw him, had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. This is the great love that our God has for all of his children.
A beautiful saying of St. Pius reflects this very moment perfectly. When a person takes one step towards God, then God makes 1,000 steps towards him. The son, unwavering in his humility and true to his word, resolved to show evidence and bring forth fruits of his repentance, saying, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son." And the reward for such a true and heartfelt confession was far beyond what the prodigal had hoped for.
Rather than just a roof over his head and food in his stomach, he received a full renewal to sonship. This is the same when we turn to God in humility. The mercies of the Lord are much greater than we can imagine or even think that we deserve. And the father's response goes well beyond simply saying, "Welcome home, son." He calls for his servants to clothe him in the finest robe, a ring and sandals, and to bring the fatted calf.
These are images for what happens in the sacrament of confession. As St. John Climacus says in rung five of the Ladder of Divine Ascent, repentance is the renewal of baptism. And in confession, our baptismal robe, which was torn and stained by sins, is restored by the servants of God, his priests. The ring put on the son's hand symbolizes a signet ring as restoration to the family of the Church, the body of Christ.
The sandals are interpreted by the fathers in the light of St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians when he instructed the faithful to have your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace, wearing the good news of peace on our feet to help us stand strong, firm-footed, and fully prepared against all the temptations to wander away from God. And last, but certainly not least, to eat of the fatted calf, the sacrifice of reconciliation is a clear type of the Eucharist when the faithful eat and drink of the body and blood of Christ for communion with the Holy Spirit and to everlasting life. For as the Lord himself said, "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him."
The happiness and joy of the father reflect the feelings of the two preceding parables in the Gospel of Luke, those of the lost sheep and of the lost coin. That there is much joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. And what joy it is, for as the father goes on to say, "This my son was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found.
This is the great joy in the mystery of repentance and confession. For when we approach with humility and repentance in our heart, though we had been dead in our sins, we are made alive again in Christ. May the Lord help us to attain to the humility and repentance of the prodigal son, especially as we prepare to enter into the great fast this year. In the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Amen.
