NOTES for Luk 15:11-32

Few passages of the Gospel speak about our life with such astonishing clarity as the parable of the prodigal son. For each of us, in essence, makes use of our life and the created world as though the Creator had died and we had received our inheritance from Him. And the Father waits for each of us as for His beloved son. The problem is that it often seems to us that the cruel pigsty into which we drive ourselves is the best possible lot. With a kind of absurd naivety, we think that peace and beauty, joy and mercy, are properties of the world that has fallen to us, while falsehood, cruelty, betrayal, and hatred are merely accidental temporary difficulties. Alas, the opposite is true. And if the choice between life and death, between good and evil, is almost obvious to us, then we cannot help thinking about the utmost love for humanity with which the Almighty lavishes gifts upon us despite all our betrayals. For everything good in life comes from Him alone, and without His intervention we will be left with nothing. Therefore, at the beginning of Great Lent we read this parable in order to say to ourselves: “I will arise and go to my father...”