"Learning Fatherhood" are reflections on Spiritual Fatherhood. They are not mature reflections on the theme and may be considered more "experiences" and meditations through which we come to Spiritual Fatherhood in the Priesthood. As a seminarian I know that this will be the identity and challenge I am called to take on especially in these last years of priestly formation.
First there was Love
The Prodigal Father stood waiting for me, his Son, and he would have waited sunset after sunset watching as the sun fell behind the westerly hills...
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| Sunset view from Seminary |
The Death of a son can come about in two ways, through the end of a human life and also through the breaking up of a relationship. Yet Hope can never really die. Can Hope ever really be broken? This Prodigal Son left behind everything for a pocket full of cash and a few ladies which he fancied. And he was gone.
"Can Hope ever really be broken?"
The Father is a portrayal of both Triune Father and Triune Son. But where could the Holy Spirit have been throughout all of this? He was there when the Prodigal Son "came to his senses" or as other translations say, "came to himself" (Lk 15:17). The Holy Spirit brings us back to ourselves, to our own identities - the greatest of which is as Son or Daughter of a Father who art in Heaven. The "Love", as St. Thomas Aquinas refers to the Holy Spirit (See Summa Theo. I q37 a1), and since Love moves mountains, it moved the Prodigal Son to return to his Father with all His Heart much like the calling for the whole People of Israel. He, as many of us do, memorized by wrote his Act of Contrition: "Father, I have sinned against Heaven and against you..."(Lk 15:18,21) to await the Father's reaction.
"Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart"
(Joel 2:12)
How was the Father going to react? Who knows if the debtor will pardon the debt? Is that a mystery for us? No, somewhere deep inside, with a child's intuition, perhaps contrary to our own human father's reactions, this Father always forgives.
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| The Prodigal Son Rembrandt van Rijn |
Then came Forgiveness - The Reunion
If forgiveness is poured out, should it have been in vain? Would it not have to have been purchased? Couldn't we just imagine that God had always just been full of mercy? Of course he was. Nonetheless, the Father had paid for his Son's return. The 'hiddenness' of the Father's life doesn't show the part of one who had 'paid' for his Son's return. I'm sure he paid in tears.
"Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered"
(Heb 5:8)
Our Father in Heaven watched his Son offer his life for each and every one of us on a Cross, and that sacrifice he would never consider 'common'. He would consider it as 'special' or rather 'unique' - requiring great merit - and that great merit was shared with us. It is called Redemption.
'Infinite forgiveness' is another way of saying Redemption. The Son gave his life so that every Son and Daughter would find himself welcome at his Father's home. Now comes the question with the open ending. You know that the parable never really comes to an end. The feast, the angry elder son, the Father-Son speech...What kind of an ending was that?
You give it one.
"Blessed are the Merciful for they shall be shown Mercy" (Mt 5:7)
If we ask forgiveness without learning how to forgive can I really count myself as forgiven? Could I ever really be satisfied with that?
As a future Prodigal Father and Priest I'll be honest, I don't 'tremble before the Confessional', I'm too proud for that. Yet who am I to bridge the abyss between Prodigal Father and Prodigal Son? Blessed are the Merciful for they shall be shown Mercy.
Lord, Have Mercy, I hope I can bring your prodigal sons back to life.
The End
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