REFLECTION on the Parable of the Prodigal Son By: Sem. Edilbert B. Concordia I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.' -Luke 5:3
The parable of the Prodigal Son seems to be the most quoted of all the stories in the gospel. Why so? Because most often in our lives, we can relate to such parable. There are actually three persons in whom we can relate with the story, obviously, the ather, the eldest son and the youngest son. But here !"m going to focus mainly on the character of the ather. !t was #ust two wee$s after the Pope visited our country and the theme of his his visi visitt focu focuse ses s on %er %ercy and and &omp &ompas assi sion on.. This This is also also actu actual ally ly the the overarching theme of the parable of the prodigal son. 'ftentimes, we are so focused with what the #oy the world gives us. We sometimes forget that such #oy is temporal and will not last forever. forever. Sometimes we"re so foolish to reali(e reali(e that that what what we are are wor$ wor$in ing g for so hard hard will will even eventu tual ally ly be gone gone in #ust #ust a glimpse. !n the story, the youngest son wanted to ta$e all of his inheritance from his ather and started to splurge, thin$ing that he will )nd ful)llment in it, but eventually in the end, he was not contented and returned to the arms of his ather. The youngest son portraits us*sinners. +umans are we, prone to error, imperfections and sin, but there is always our loving ather who accepts us even though we have fallen many times. es, we may be eatenup by the consumeristic attitude the world is oering us, we may be trapped with the temporal #oy which the world brings us, but in the end, we )nd ourselves ourselves not contented, contented, unful)lle unful)lled, d, and empty. empty.
We then go bac$ to our
ather by repenting sincerely of our sins and let all such emptiness be )lled with such love, mercy and compassion.
This is what the /ord cannot do but to love us up to no end. 0nworthy we are, but in his eyes, we are still +is children that have to be loved and cared by +im. 1ll we need to do is to humble ourselves and return to +im, who in the very )rst place has loved us )rst. /et us start to imitate the attitude of the ather in the story. !t may be hard at the beginning, but with 2od"s grace and mercy, we can do it all throughout our lives. /et us spread the spirit of mercy and compassion3
