Luke 15:11-32 is always the Gospel reading for the second Sunday of the Triodion, the three weeks of "pre-Lent." It is the story of the Jewish son, who takes his portion of his fathers wealth--wealth that had not only been accumulated in the father's lifetime, but the land and artifacts and wealth of the father's father, and his father, and on back down the preceding generations--and makes off for parts unsavory. The story is well-known. As is its glorious and happy conclusion.
But it struck me today that the son's offense was not just loose-living and carousing and the like--as darksome as are those deeds. Rather, as Archpriest Patrick Reardon pointed out in Liturgy today, the son squandered the tangible deposit of the labors and wisdom of the many generations that had gone before. Like Esau, he despised his birthright for the here and now.
It was noted today that the fool in Proverbs 1, is precisely that person who rejects the wisdom of father and mother, who each are wise from their father and mother, and they of their parents, and so on. Wisdom is not learned so much as it is handed down.
Furthermore, the son's return is the essence of the Christian Gospel: a return to the Father. It was remarked that Christianity is inescapably patriarchal: as in pater and arche, a return to the Father who is the source of and ruler over all. The Father is the fount of the Trinity: of the Father is the Son begotten and from the Father the Spirit proceeds. We are taught by the Holy Spirit to say: "Abba, Father" (Romans 8:15) and "Jesus is Lord" (1 Corinthians 12:3). And Jesus our Lord taught us to say "Our Father."
But the faith of the Prodigal Son was more than just fine points of biblical doctrine--important though these are. Rather, the Prodigal Son is transfigured into the Penitent Son by parable's end. That is to say, it's not the knowing, but the knowing and the doing, that makes way for wisdom. For me, in this pre-Lenten season, and on into Great Lent itself, I want to model the Prodigal Son. I want to receive from my fathers and mothers in the faith the wisdom handed down to them. But not just head knowledge or mere understanding. Rather, I want a return to the Father that shapes and molds my very life.
God have mercy on me a sinner.
Posted by Clifton at February 23, 2003 01:54 PM | TrackBack