By Msgr. Joseph P. Calise
In 1935, Bill Wilson, a Wall Street executive who was recovering from alcoholism, was on a business trip and realized that the temptation to drink was growing within him.
One of the tenets he had learned in his journey toward sobriety was that he had to speak of his disease to someone who would understand. By passing the message to someone who was still suffering he would not only potentially help the other person, but also, more immediately, would renew his own dedication to sober living.
After a few phone calls, he was connected to Dr. Bob Smith, who was in rather bad shape. This meeting is often credited as the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous, a program of recovery that has extended from that meeting to a current membership of over two million in about 175 different countries.
Trusting the Father
The program is based on Twelve Steps that form the foundation for a new way of living. They create a spiritual connection for the individual with God, himself and others, a connection that can be summarized as: knowing and trusting in the loving power of God, examining your own conscience, allowing God’s power to heal and recreate you and then, living that new life in the company of others and hoping to pass on to those who seek it, some of your newfound knowledge. Reflecting on these principles gives us the opportunity to perhaps see the characters from the parable of the Prodigal Son in a new light.
This passage is usually referred to as the parable of the Prodigal Son. That, however, is incomplete and potentially misleading. The younger son was prodigal with the father’s wealth, but not throughout the Gospel. He was also not the only character. The story is actually the story of a relationship that exists between a father and his sons, and between the sons themselves.
The Gospel begins with a simple, underlying presupposition: Everyone knows the father loves his sons. We certainly get the impression that there is wealth in the family, and that the wealth was earned by hard work. The father wanted to take care of his family. I imagine he was disappointed when the younger son requested his share of the properties, but the parable tells of no objection on the father’s part to giving his son what he asked.
Perhaps he knew the boy well enough to know that something greater than the wealth would be gained. The younger son goes off, squanders the money and finds himself longing to eat the food that was given to the pigs, which is particularly repulsive to a culture that finds the pig unclean in itself.
He returns to the father who greets him with rings and robes and a party even before he can finish his prepared speech. There are no cliffhangers in this relationship: the son that was lost is found, and his relationship with his father has not only been restored, but also seems to have improved. The cliffhanger comes from the older son. Unlike the prodigal who confesses his waywardness, the elder professes his loyalty, enumerating all he has done without seeking reward.
Wealth Wasted
The father’s only answer is that the reward was always his for the asking, but his failure to ask should not be a deterrent to his brother’s celebration. In this sense, the argument can be made that it is this older son who was prodigal, having wasted the father’s love. Because of the nearness of his father’s love, he never took healthy advantage of the wealth that was available to him.
In this Year of Mercy, we have the opportunity to reflect on God’s love available to all of us for the asking.
Basic to the experience of faith is the belief that God loves us and invites us to share in that love with Him and one another. Whether we have been faithful sons all along, or have wandered and seek return, He loves us and wants us to live in the awareness of that love, a love that becomes more complete when it is shared.
Readings for the Fourth Sunday of Lent
Joshua 5: 9a, 10-12
Psalm 34: 2-3, 4-5, 6-7
2 Corinthians 5: 17-21
Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32
Msgr. Joseph P. Calise is the pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish, Williamsburg.