It occurs to me that a new dimension of the Prodigal Son story is being slowly opened out by Pope Francis mission. That being the slight experienced by the older brother which doesn’t really have any resolution with the story itself. Why should the prodigal get the best calf and the best seat at a banquet thrown in his honour? He took a great chunk of the families inheritance and fully squandered it and now comes back looking to be taken in under the inheritance carefully preserved by his older brother. The prodigal brings nothing back with him to replace what he squandered and yet here he is getting everything that he doesn’t deserve!
It’s always been one of the hardest stories for lots of people to stomach. Forgiveness in families is so often limited to the capacity that the sinner has to repay the offense and really is that forgiveness? Is that how God deals out His mercy?
I wonder if the Exhortation will be released on or just before 8th December, the start of the Jubilee year of Mercy, as a contemplation piece for our year? That would be a wonderful thing since we in the Catholic world have been so involved in the Synod for the last 2 years! It’d be like a proper retreat albiet a 3 year long retreat, in that sense.
