Sunday of the Prodigal Son, Tone 2; Leave-taking of the Feast of the Encounter of Our Lord; Holy Martyr Nicephorus
Read
1 Corinthians 6:12-20; Luke 15:11-32
Who does not know this parable from the Gospels? Even non-Christians use the expression “prodigal son.” But how often do we really understand it?
By our sins, but even more by our forgetfulness, we distance ourselves from God and His Kingdom, we go off alone to “a far country.” We waste the talents which God has given us. And we become spiritually impoverished. We begin to be in want. This is unavoidable. We were created for God’s Kingdom, so we are not capable of being truly happy and satisfied anywhere else. But we are afraid to turn to God, so we seek happiness and satisfaction from transitory things which can never satisfy us.
Some years ago there was a film [The Poseidon Adventure (1972)] about an elderly couple in a dangerous, frightening situation. The husband said to his wife: “maybe we should pray!” The wife answered: “you haven’t been near a church in fifty years; now you think you should ask God for help?” Well, yes! Now is always the right time Lo ask God for help! The very thought that “maybe we should pray” is a sign that the Holy Spirit is moving our hearts; we could not even think of praying if God did not give us the impulse to pray.
On the Sunday of the Prodigal Son and on the following two Sundays, we have a special part of our worship that never occurs at any other time: the solemn chanting of Psalm 136: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept, when we remembered Zion!”
This is the great gift we ask of God: that we may remember Zion, His Heavenly Kingdom. That we may not forget Jerusalem, the heavenly city which is the goal of our pilgrimage. Chanting this psalm, we remember; we realize that in this world we are all exiles, we are all “displaced” from our true Home in the Heavenly Kingdom.
That gift of memory, of understanding of our situation, enables us to resolve, as does the Prodigal Son: “I will get up and go back to my Father!” With this realization, we resolve to make the effort of Great Lent to travel this spiritual road back to the Heavenly Kingdom. It is not easy; it will take time and energy, and sometimes we shall be tired and weary. But we will not be alone; Jesus is with us, and so are all the saints, and the Father is awaiting us with loving, joyful welcome.
As Pope John Paul II teaches: “We must show people the beauty of memory, the power that comes to us from the Spirit and makes us witnesses because we are children of witnesses; we must make them taste the wonderful things the Spirit has wrought in history; we must show that it is precisely Tradition which has preserved them…” (Orientale Lumen, 8).
So prepare well for Lent. Plan to put aside distractions to be able to take the time to pray to read the Scriptures to fast, to go to church (and to review the special services in advance). Plan how to regulate your household during Lent, especially to eliminate as much as possible such intrusions as television.
Excerpt from Our Paschal Pilgrimage. A Guide for the Great Fast for Ukrainian Catholics by Bishop Basil Losten