Awakenings

by Father Thomas Keating

Events in Jesus' Ministry

Chapter 10

Prodigal Son

Then he said, "A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.' So the father divided the property between them. After a few days, the younger son collected a11 his belongings and set off to a distant country where he squandered his inheritance in a life of dissipation. When he had freely spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he found himself in dire need. So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him to his farm to tend the swine. And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any. Coming to his senses he thought, 'How many of my father's hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here am I, dying from hunger. I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers."' So he got up and went back to his father. While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him. His son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son.' But his father ordered his servants, 'Quickly bring the finest robe and put it on him; put a ring on his fingers and sandals on his feet. Take the fattened calf and slaughter it. Then 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.' Then the celebration began."
(Luke 15:11-24)

    Here we see a young man who obviously has an enormous emotional investment in having a good time. He had been saving up his money and now has the inheritance he asked for. His drive for happiness centers around pleasure, affection, and esteem. So he gathers his possessions and heads off for the good life. While he is out on his prolonged toot, his emotional program for pleasure does not work out as well as expected. In the midst of his enjoyment of the high life comes a great famine; he loses all his money, his friends desert him, and he has nothing to eat. Out of desperation he takes the job of herdsman in a pigsty. In the local culture this was the lowest form of earning a living. At this point, he remembers how well fed everybody was at home including the hired servants. Notice that his motive for going home was not the best. His chief reason is that his program for happiness based on pleasure was not viable.

    This parable communicates the fact that we are relating with a God who is infinitely concerned. The father of the prodigal was waiting for years for his son to wake up and realize that happiness is not to be found in the pursuit of pleasure. When he sees his son heading home, he is deeply moved. In fact, he is so touched by the sight of this bedraggled child on his way home that he forgets about the shabby way the boy had treated him when he went off with his share of the inheritance. He rushes out to meet him and heaps all kinds of welcome on him.

    This parable is addressed to people who are living a life that the general public regards as disreputable. Most sinners, at a deep level, are insecure, lonely, and usually acting out the damage done to them in early life. Their actual conduct is not so with the overwhelming emotional trauma inflicted on them by adults at an age when they could not handle it. This father's one concern is to reinstate his son. The son's hope is to get a position among the hired hands where he would get enough to eat. That is the extent of his trust in his father. The reception he received must have come as a shock to him. He suddenly realizes that he has never understood his father or the extent of his father's love for him, never fathomed his father's concern and depth of forgiveness.

    This parable is aimed at the hearts of people who have lost hope and whose despair is expressed in the constant repetition of lifestyles that cannot bring happiness. Yet they are locked into them because they do not know the happiness found in God's friendship that would pull them out of the vicious circle of desire, gratification, and frustration--the endless cycle of craving and disappointment. The father was ready to forgive and forget everything in his delight in finding the son who was lost. Going into a far country in search of happiness was a tragedy because true security, independence, and affection were all present in his father's house and the prodigal son did not know it.

    The sinners who are listening to Jesus are being invited into the same boundless forgiveness. It is not merit that brings one into the friendship of this father but consent to his infinite goodness and concern.

    What do we do after we have come home, after we have chosen once again to live under the gaze of God's infinite tenderness instead of hiding from it? What do we do with feelings of greed, pride, vainglory, jealousy, envy, lust, wanting to manipulate other people, or in short, with the whole world of selfishness that does not belong in the father's house?

    This return to the father's house is not the return to heaven. It is only a return to the right orientation of our lives with all the damage that we bring with us from early childhood. Once we have chosen the orientation of living in the father's house, the symbol of God's presence, Jesus joins us wherever we are. The acts of selfishness, backward glances, regressive tendencies to former emotional states are all something that we share with Christ and he with us. He identifies with our personal history in every detail. Instead of thinking we are alienated from God when afflictive emotions arise, we realize that they are fuel for divine love. We can then welcome them without identifying with them because we see them as wounds that God is trying to heal.

    In this story nothing is said about the boy's mother. The father seems to be a single parent, both mother and father to his sons. Perhaps the mother's absence was the boy's basic problem from the moment he started out in life. Our mother is our first window onto God, and if this window is missing because of misunderstandings, physical absence, or inadequate parenting, the window is hard to open later in life. The vocation of a mother must be one of the greatest vocations there is. Starting out well in life would solve an enormous number of problems.

This chapter is taken from the book Awakenings by Fr. Thomas Keating. You can obtain a copy from the Bookstore.  See Awakenings