Instructive Moment About Our Father

This is one of the first meditations that Gire has written that's actually given me new insight into the story of the Prodigal Son. (And I've read literally hundreds of pages about this parable and heard countless sermons.) I never thought of the older son as an analogy for the Pharisees... waiting just outside the doorstep.What a slap that must have been. Yet it's true. The father could have just as easily said "Fine, don't come in and join the party. Sit out there and sulk." He didn't do that.

This story touches each one of us in different ways at different times: I can see myself as both the prodigal and the goody-two-shoes, depending on what day it is. I've related to the jealousy and indignation of the older child, the total unfairness of the father's response to his younger son's return... and I can especially relate to the selfishness and need for freedom of the younger. I can only occasionally relate to the utter joy and forgiveness of the Father in all of this. Yet there have been times when, as a mother, I have quit resenting certain omissions in my sons' behavior and just loved them for who they were.