​Part of my joy in celebrating Mass is greeting the worshippers as they leave the service. If I see a lot of happy, smiling faces, then I know God touched their hearts. Last Sunday, I talked with a beautiful young couple who told me they have been together for about a year. I jokingly asked, “Do you still like each other?” She immediately answered, “Yes”. He also answered “yes” but then said thoughtfully, “I don’t always like her, but I will always love her.” I was touched by his wisdom.

The Prodigal Son did something his father could never like. His request to receive half of the inheritance before his dad died hurt his father deeply. The son basically told his dad, “I don’t care about you. I just want your money.” Half of his son’s inheritance would be the farm. The father would have to divide the land which the son would sell to raise the cash. The prodigal son is telling his father, “I don’t want to be connected with this family any longer. I don’t want to live here with you anymore.” The son not only rejected his father personally but all the moral values his father taught him. The son squandered his dad’s money with “loose living.”

The father suffered deep humiliation from the town folk. As soon as the son sold half the family farm, everyone would know about it. Many probably criticized the father for not raising his son properly or for allowing this to happen at all.

The father did not like what his son did to him. But the father’s actions revealed another part to this story. “I will always love him.” This is how the father loved him unceasingly.

1) Did you notice the father never rejected his son. He could have said, “Take it. Go. I never want to see you again!” Instead, the father kept watch on the main road hoping for his son’s return. The caring of a father’s broken heart never stopped.

2) Hoping against hope, the day came when the father saw his son slowly, haltingly walking down the road. Dad had every right to ridicule his son. “Look at you. Your clothes are dirty. You stink. Your feet are bloody. You don’t even have shoes.” Instead of ridiculing his son, the father restores him. He restores him as his son. He gives him the signature ring to sign contracts, the robe of membership in the family and shoes only family members wore unlike servants. These are the privileges of a son.

3) The story of the Prodigal Son is not primarily about bad and wrong but lost and found. The father gives his lost and found son total acceptance and lavish generosity that he did not earn or deserve. This is called, “God’s Grace.” The problem with the elder son is he worked so hard to earn his father’s love without realizing he already had it. The elder son complained, “yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends.” I wonder if the elder son ever asked his father for a goat. Perhaps he was so busy trying to be the “good son” he forgot he had a “good father” who said to him, “everything I have is yours.” I wish Jesus would have let us know if the elder son got his pity party.

The Good News of this story is that God’s Love for you is not based on your good behavior. You can go to God dirty. He will clean you with His Mercy. There is a beautiful story about a Christian leader named Joe Bayly and his rebellious son. The son left home and joined a hippie commune. The father received a call his son was arrested. He visited several police stations throughout the night, but his son could not be found. Joe figured out it was a prank call. Before going home, Joe went to the flophouse where his son was staying. He walked through sleeping bodies till he found his son sleeping on a bed. He bent over, kissed him, and left.

Years later, that son became a pastor of a church. He told his dad, “Dad, do you know what turned me around? It was that night you came into my room and kissed me. You thought that I was asleep, but I wasn’t. I thought, ‘If my dad loves me that much, I had better get my life right with God.’” Happy Lent