24th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

I decided this week to have another look at a book a friend gave me over twenty years ago. It was first published in 1975, and in it the author, who when he wrote it, worked in Beirut, explores how the parables of Jesus would have sounded to the people who first heard them two thousand years ago. And he does this by taking Jesus’ stories into isolated peasant communities in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq to see how the people there, whose culture and attitudes had changed little since New Testament times, reacted to them. I was particularly interested, of course, in the Parable of the Prodigal Son and want to share with you how the book helped me see more clearly where the moment of conversion for the younger son lies.

The obvious place, of course, is in the pigsty. It was there, after all that the young man, according to Luke, ‘came to his senses.’ And this is certainly an important moment in the drama. Having asked his father to divide up his property while he was still alive, he had done what was unthinkable to the people of those days. He had then compounded this lack of respect for the traditions of his family by selling off his share of the land quickly, within a few days, presumably at a reduced price, before leaving. But what would have really shocked the people who first heard the story was the fact that, by squandering the money, he allowed the family inheritance to fall into the hands of gentiles. This was the last straw plus one. Any Jew in Jesus’ day who even sold a piece of land to a gentile would have instigated a ceremony called the ‘Kezazah’ by which a pot was publicly smashed, symbolizing that someone had, in effect, ceased to exist. It was the ultimate disgrace...Except that it got even worse.

If you had been a story-teller in Jesus’ day trying to describe the lowest point a Jew could sink to, you could not have bettered this story. It would be working in a pigsty owned by a gentile. Jews not only did not eat pigs, they would not even touch them, let alone eat their food. And yet this is what the prodigal son finishes up doing. The polite way to get rid of a worker in Middle Eastern society in Jesus’ day – something everyone would need to do during a time of famine – was to ask them to do something they could not possibly agree to. Except that the younger son, so desperate was his position, did it. He was prepared to do what no self-respecting Jew would ever do, touch pigs and eat pigs’ food. If there were ever a personal gutter lower than which it was not possible to sink, this was it, and there, Luke tells us, the younger son came to his senses. But despite everything, this was still not the moment of conversion for him, as the speech he prepares for his father clearly indicates. “Father” he decides to say, “I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called you son. Treat me as one of your paid servants,” words, you might think, of one who has learnt his lesson. Except that it’s not quite what it appears.

In Jesus day, you see, there were three types of people worked on an estate. There were slaves who were part of the estate, lower class slaves who were not, and paid servants. The paid servant did not belong to the estate – he was a casual labourer – but the crucial thing about him was that, unlike the slaves, he was free. Some paid servants were quite skilled and so were considered the equals of those they worked for. They could earn money and when the people in those remote communities of the Middle East heard Jesus’ parable for the first time they saw quite clearly what the younger son was up to. He wanted to work his way out of the mess he was in and eventually pay his father back. Like his elder brother who had ‘slaved for his father all these years’ he had not yet understood the nature of his father’s love. Each in his own way represents the way of religion rather than faith. The religious person, like the Pharisees two weeks ago, thinks he can save himself by performing good works and religious actions. The person of faith is one who has met the God of today’s story and it’s when the younger son does this – not in the pigsty – that the real moment of conversion comes. It’s only when his father interrupts his speech calls for the best robe, puts a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet that he makes that greatest of all spiritual journeys. He leaves the limited, narrow world of religion, where his brother, with all his rule keeping, still lives, and enters the mind-blowing world of faith.

But there’s one other key thing in the story: the fattened calf. What the younger son had done had shocked the whole village. The ‘Kezazah’ involved everyone. There was no way back for the prodigal son in this community, which was why the father killed a calf. If it had just been the family and a few friends the goat the elder son speaks would have been big enough. But the killing of a calf means that the whole village is invited to the celebration. They are all called to forgive the son the way his father does and this is the real point of the story. The father is God. The villagers are ourselves and quite simply we are called to love the way the father does. Just as the father drew the whole village into the circle of his love, so God calls us into the circle of his love. The prodigal son comes in all shapes and forms. He is the world. He is found in every family and every town. He is, if you like, the personification of human weakness in all its shapes and forms. He is, in the end, each one of us and until we learn to love and forgive the way we have been loved and forgiven we have understood nothing about God

I suggested last week that the Gospel, when lived, is the most powerful revolutionary force in history. Like Paul’s invitation to Philemon to take Onesimus back as a brother rather than a slave, the teaching of Jesus has locked away within itself the power to change the world. And even if everything else Jesus ever said had somehow been lost to history, in this single story the world would have everything it needs to know about God.

So take time to ponder it deeply this weekend.


BIDDING PRAYERS


The parable of the Prodigal Son can be seen as a story about the whole of humanity. Like the people in the first reading this week, humanity in every age is quick to leave the path marked out for it by God and worship false gods. The calf of molten metal which we read about in the first reading takes different shapes and forms at different moments in history and we pray for the wisdom and insight we need to recognize the false gods which lie at the heart of our modern consumer-driven society…Lord hear us

In that same first reading, Moses pleaded with God and God relented. He did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened. This story reflects a very early, even primitive, understanding of who God is and yet already the writer has begun to have some sense of God’s love for his people. And so we pray that the men and women of our time will move beyond the limited and inadequate understandings of God which currently dominate our world and learn who God really is…....Lord hear us

Just as the father in the story told by Jesus draws the people of the village into his love and invites them to be part of it, so God draws us into his love and invites us to love the world the way he loves it. And so we pray for this grace. We pray especially that God will enable us to move beyond our natural human tendency to judge others and hold their sins and mistakes against them. We ask him to teach us instead to forgive others and reach out to them in love no matter what they may have done............Lord hear us

The Prodigal Son – or in some cases the Prodigal Daughter – is alive, if not well, in many families. Many of us will know this from personal experience. And so we pray for families, especially here in West Kilbride, where there has been estrangement. We pray that, with God’s help, we may be able to reach out across the barriers of pain and resentment and be reconciled with those from whom we have become separated but whom, deep down, we continue to love as we always have done...........Lord hear us

The Prodigal Son represents, in many ways, young people in every age. The process by which we cease to be children and move through adolescence into adulthood can be long, painful and difficult. At no other time in our lives is the old saying that we always hurt the ones we love more true. At times the gap between love and hate can be very narrow as we struggle with the strong emotions involved. And so we pray for all involved in this struggle, both parents and young people……...Lord hear us

In the second reading today, St Paul speaks of how he himself is the greatest of sinners. Writing to Timothy, a much younger man than himself, he recalls his earlier life: how he was a blasphemer and how he did everything he could to destroy the Church. And so we pray that, during Pope Benedict’s visit to Britain this week, the Church in our country will be more inclined to acknowledge openly its own past sins, especially in the area of sexual abuse, than to condemn the sins of others........ Lord hear us