Lent 4C25: Who is the real "prodigal" in this story?

A reflection on the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15, written and spoken by Kieran J. O'Mahony OSA. 

Gentle piano music to close the meditation

Transcript

John’s Lane
D08 F8NW
30 March 2025
Lent 4C25:
Who’s there really “prodigal” one?

Welcome
The story of the prodigal son is one of the best remembered and familiar stories in the New Testament. It would be (relatively) easy to feel that there is nothing new in such a well-loved narrative. Hearing the same stories year in year out can dull our capacity to hear.

Topic
And yet, the Prodigal Son is a truly remarkable piece of writing — much richer than we usually allow ourselves to recognise. Appreciated as a very short short story, it was much admired by Tolstoy and you can see why. Perhaps it can speak to us again in a fresh way.

Steps
Firstly, the story we have just heard has many dimensions with a kind of ricochet effect. A short list would include

Relationships: Fathers, sons, brothers, foreigners, servants, and, in an unsettling way, women.

Feelings: desire, autonomy, rivalry, dependence, shame, jealousy, resentment.

And for Issues: property, inheritance, rights and duties, authority, family inheritance.

It is a lot to pack into a short story and gives us plenty to think about. You can see why Tolstoy was an admirer.

Secondly, at the centre of the story is the healthy loss of a false self. In the case of the younger son, he has one big false self to shake off: the selfish, self-focused, even greedy child, who thinks it is all about him. It takes profound alienation from family, faith and fatherland for him to come to himself. Only when that big mask has been smashed can he begin to see who he really is. At that point in the story, our translation is weak (“he came to his senses”). Much better is the NRSV: he came to himself, that is, finally he saw himself as he really is.

There is one other false self to be shaken off. In this, the two brothers, so different on the surface, are more alike than we imagine. Sibling rivalry comes with sibling resemblance. The younger son permits himself to think that he can come back as a household servant, in effect, as a slave.

“Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as one of your paid servants.”

Resembling him, the older brother has boxed himself in as a kind of over-dutiful son or slave. The first projects his future relationship with the father on the basis of guilt; the second on the basis servile loyalty.

"Look, all these years I have slaved for you and never once disobeyed your orders.”

Both projections would prevent any parent from being a true parent. As any good parent would, the father briskly sets aside both distortions, interrupting one speech and correcting the other. This is to be a loving relationship, including compassion and forgiveness, not based on guilt or servile loyalty.

Conclusion
Of course, today’s Gospel cannot be reduced to a single message but perhaps this might help. At the time of writing, the parable spoke to the inclusion of Gentiles in the Christian community. The older brother — in effect the always faithful Jewish people — is resentful of the easy restoration and inclusion of those who have not borne the heat of the day. The story ends open-ended — perhaps something for us today. 

All of us have many selves: the way we think we come across to others; how others perceive us; the different relationships and, not least, the story we tell ourselves about who we are. There is even the “self” we present to God. All of these are partial and involve levels of self-delusion. Experience of life is a great help here: perhaps we too have made the journey, in the words of the story: he came to himself. 

Only God knows who we really are and only in him to we find our true selves. As Augustine famously said, you have made us for yourself, O Lord, and out hearts are restless until they rest in you.