I have always been a sucker for stories of people who were lost who then became found. Early in my priesthood, I somehow got on the mailing list for Covenant House, and their begging letters would always tell the stories of the runaways who came to the big city with great plans, but that turned horribly wrong. They would eventually find their way to Covenant house, and be coaxed and welcomed home. And then they’d ask for money to “keep the doors open” to the next John or Sue or Fred or Mary who was lost and needed a safe place.
This summer, I realize why I was attracted to those kinds of stories, when at Christian Family Camp, we reflected on Henry Nouwen’s book – The Return of the Prodigal. One of the quotes that found a home in me was this:
If the only meaning in the prodigal son story is that people sin and God forgives – then it is easy to slide isn’t it – my sins are an occasion for God to show his forgiveness. There is no challenge in that way of reading the story…
Rather, Nouwen goes on to suggest, the ultimate purpose of the story is to teach each of us to BECOME THE FATHER. To become the one who looks down the road to all who live in the land of the lost, to all who have given up hope, to all who are searching for something beyond themselves to give themselves to. We are to become the ones, who always keep the door open.
With the YOUNGEST SON – we see that the Father is always looking down the road… hoping for the one who MIGHT come, who might return. Day and night, he keeps the door of his heart open. And when that son does return, there is no judgment, no disdain; no “I told you this would happen to you.” Instead, we see a fatted calf, a robe, a ring, sandals – you are restored to me.
With the OLDEST SON – who is just as lost in his anger and resentment as the youngest son, we see the same thing – leaving the banquet, inviting his son to come inside, to acknowledge what he sees – life where there was death. Inviting him to know the joy he knows at the return of every prodigal. He was lost – you are lost – come inside and be found again.
That is perhaps the final lesson of the parable, that invitation to become the heir, to become the welcoming love of God himself. And whether I get there as the younger son or the elder – eventually, I have to become the SUCCESSOR. I am to make the Father’s way of life my own and become transformed in his image.
So what does it take to become the father? Let me suggest one attitude and one practice.
The attitude is what I learned from the Covenant House giving letters – “The door is always open for you.” When we are wounded or when we wound another, it often ‘slams a door’ in the face of the other. The father could have shut the door on his son the moment he demanded his inheritance. He could have kept the door shut when he learned the older son would not enter the banquet. Instead, he keeps the door open. And more than that, he seeks out from that door, the ones who is lost. Can we learn to live, knowing we will suffer, knowing we might be taken advantage of with a door that is always open?
The practice – is generosity. There is nothing that the father keeps for himself. –Fatted calf, ring, sandals – all that disappears *snap* like that for the younger son. To the older son – “ALL I HAVE IS YOURS.” The father knows the secret: Resentment and joy cannot co-exist. Joy is the fruit of generosity. This week, be generous with your time and talent.
Let me end with a final quote from Nouwen’s book, one that perhaps sums up the entire story of the prodigal son:
It is comfortable to remain as the wayward or angry child. The world does not need another younger or elder son – converted or not – but a father who lives with outstretched hands, always desiring to let them rest on the shoulders of his returning children.
Let me repeat that: The world does not need another younger or elder son – converted or not – but a father who lives with outstretched hands, always desiring to let them rest on the shoulders of his returning children.