Sunday of the Prodigal Son

Today is the Sunday of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), and although we hear this reading every year two Sundays before the beginning of Great Lent, it is a privilege and so edifying to be able to be introduced to new facets on what we can extract from this precious gem of a parable that our Lord God and Savior has given us.

Today, it was a blessing to be reminded how we can often judge others, as the "faithful son" in the parable did to his prodigal brother. To parallel this in our lives, at times, those that are frequent churchgoers will criticize those that come to the church only during Lent or Pascha-time or during the Nativity season, and we are reminded that we too are called to embrace our brothers and sisters in brotherly Christian love no matter how often we attend, without judging. As we know, judging is for God alone anyway.

We also heard about how the prodigal son went off to a "faraway place", which represents the world that we live in that excludes God, where we are faraway from Him; many times, people unfortunately choose to go to this faraway place to be willfully separated from God. It is why we should particularly not criticize or judge, but rejoice when these lost souls return to Christ...sometimes, these "lost souls" are even ourselves.

I posed a question recently to our priest. I read about the lives of saints frequently, and I am fascinated by them. They are so full of every good virtue, in reading their lives—although many of them possess many virtues—it seems that they all have one particular virtue that shines above the rest. We hear titles for the saints that come after their first names that are like surnames, like "The Merciful", "The Faster", "The Confessor", etc. So I wondered....what is the greatest virtue of all? I mean, I know that our goal as Eastern Orthodox Christians is to have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, but what virtue is the most beneficial for our souls and will fill us up so completely that it will leave no room for other passions? He said "love". He quoted Matthew 22:37-40, where our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ tells a lawyer that the two greatest commandments are to "'love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' ... And ... 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." Truly then, the greatest virtue is love. But not just any love, but agape (αγαπη) love. Sadly, in the English language, we only have one word for love, but as we all know, love has many meanings. Agape is the Greek word for love that is the one and the same word used in 1 John 4:8, 16 when the Apostle John says that "God is love"...agape means a perfect love...a love that has "no strings attached"; a love that doesn't expect anything in return...the same love mentioned in the famous Scripture passage in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, and it bears mentioning here:

"Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails."

I've heard this passage a million times, but it never really sunk in. Then when I realized that in this particular Scripture, the word "love" has been translated from the Greek "agape"—and that this agape-love is the same love that is part of Who God is, not just that He has love, but that He is love—it means that we love someone no matter how they treat us and don't seek "revenge" (even if that "revenge" means waiting for an opportunity to speak an unkind word), we don't dance around happy when bad things happen to people, even if we think they "deserve" it somehow (again, God alone should judge), we are called to practice long-suffering ("bear all things" and "endure all things") when we are mistreated. Aren't these all things that our Lord God and Savior Himself showed us we should be doing when He lived among us, and when He even prayed for His enemies while enduring excruciating, unimaginable pain during His crucifixion? If we're called to love in such a sacrificial way, then it's only natural that this kind of love will soften our hardened hearts, and we can begin to let in compassion and mercy, instead of maybe judging others around us that are in the midst of misfortune: "Oh, so-and-so 'deserves' the situation they're in because they did this-or-that" and likewise. Instead of feeling the temptation (and great burden) to judge, we can instead feel a more freer response which will become a natural, productive, non-hypocritical, and heartfelt response the more we utilize our "muscles" of agape-love which is to feel compassion and mercy.

Although it's a great step forward to feel compassion and mercy, it's not enough to just feel them...compassion and mercy should move us to action. It's not in vain that the Apostle James tells us, "Faith without works is dead" (James 2:17), and he points out how incomplete faith is without works, when he asks us, "What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,' but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead". (James 2:14-17)

So this agape-love aspect of our spirituality is the greatest virtue we should be aspiring for. First of all, it enables us to fulfill the greatest two commandments—loving God completely, and loving our neighbors completely; sacrifically, most of the time. From that, it gives us the opportunity to have more mercy and compassion on those around us (which the world desperately needs more of these days anyway), which inspires us to do good works. From there, this is where all of the other virtues spring forth from. Like a mighty tree, agape-love should be deeply rooted in the midst of our very beings, and then the other virtues can spring forth from the agape-love tree trunk like branches, and finally, we can produce fruit from our good works on this tree, and God will find us bringing forth this good fruit. (Matthew 3:10)

Yes, I have a point to my post which ties in with the original idea of the Prodigal Son. :-) If the "faithful son" had agape-love like his father had, he too would've been happy to see his prodigal brother come to his senses and come home, even though he had lived a "loose life"...he would've been happy to see him come home safe and sound, happy to see him be able to eat after going hungry for so long, instead of being critical and judgemental, and poising himself in a position of a refusal to share in the joy of his brother coming back into the fold. Our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ Himself tells us "there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents" (Luke 15:10), so why shouldn't we also rejoice? Isn't our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ the Seeker of the Lost Sheep, that will leave ninety-nine sheep to go back to save one lost sheep? (Luke 15:4) Isn't He the Good Shepherd that lays down His life for His sheep? (John 10:11) What a sobering example for us to try to emulate...what a humble and holy Example our Lord is to us. We too need to be like that father in the parable of the Prodigal Son.

I personally believe that every Fast, we should be trying to cultivate new good habits while purging bad ones, and that each Fast should be better than the last one. Before Great Lent starts after Vespers on Sunday, March 9, we should make it our personal goal to set before us the challenge of learning to love without judging or criticizing; to love sacrificially and completely as our Lord loves us, as the Prodigal Son's father (who is really a type of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ anyway) loved his son....let's learn to try to love agape-style. Instead of non-Christians or nominal Christians finding every opportunity to criticize Christians for their lack of love and for their judging of others, let us return to our former state, when non-Christians were drawn to the Christian community because of the great love there. We've ceased to be the "salt" and "light" of the world—let us be salt and light (Matthew 5:13 and Matthew 5:16) once again. The Holy Fathers teach that when looking at others, we are called to be as gentle as possible, but in looking at ourselves, we are called to be most strict and most harsh. When we're tempted to judge or criticize others, let us keep that "wise silence" in Scripture, and look instead into our own hearts. More people would again be drawn to Christianity if we'd stop making public proclamations denoucing others' behavior when we're not looking at our own. Let's care about those around us fiercely and sacrificially, but never criticize or judge or be harsh, treading gently and quietly as we live our lives, being a silent but true example to those around us. If we want to change the world, let's start by changing ourselves.

Truly, we are all Prodigal Sons. How terrible would it be if our Lord God and Savior accepted us as coldly as the "faithful son" did to his brother in this parable? What hope could we have in our salvation? How could we ever expect reconcilation with God if He treated us this way? We would be loss in a pit of despair, and since the purpose of our lives is to unify ourselves with God, our lives would cease to have meaning. If we are all sons and daughters of God, then truly, we are all brothers and sisters with each other. Agape (αγαπη) love is what we can take from today's parable. Agape love will help us to be like the father in the parable, and more like our Heavenly Father, too.