NOTES for Luk 15:11-32
Ambrose of Milan in the fourth century called the parable of the prodigal son Evangelium Evangeliorum - "the Gospel of Gospels," or "the heart of the Gospel" (as we can learn from Fr. Georgy Chistyakov's book "Above the Lines of the New Testament"). Why? Let us think about this. Yes, it is a parable about our sin; yes, it is a parable about the fact that God always awaits our repentance; yes, about the fact that righteousness is often unable to forgive unrighteousness. All this is true. But many Gospel parables speak about this... Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh always emphasizes that the younger son's act is terrible not because he squandered the money. Not because of how he squandered it, living dissolutely. Then why? Because he treated his father as though his father were already dead. That is the most terrible thing. Wanting to receive his part of the inheritance, he as if said to his father: die; for me you are dead. What does this remind us of now? We remember the man who said, "God is dead." We think it was Nietzsche. In part this is true, but it is not the whole truth. Millions of other people said this; no, they did not say it, but worse still, they thought it. We have a modest name for them: atheists. There is a funny story. In the middle of the last century, an inscription appeared on the wall of a European university: God is dead. Nietzsche. Soon someone added: Nietzsche is dead. God. This is funny, but from a spiritual point of view it is wrong. For God, everyone is alive, everyone is desired. This is what this parable is about, and this is why it is the heart of the Gospel.