By Most Rev Prakash Mallavarapu,
Archbishop of Visakhapatnam
There is in all of us ‘the prodigal son!’
This becomes evident in the use of the God-given right to freedom. This right to freedom is manifested in the decisions we take in matters small and big! This is the beauty of the life of human beings created in the ‘image and likeness” of God the Creator, enjoying the gift of freedom.
This gift is given! Enjoying this gift of freedom is a “responsibility.”
It can make or break our life. The prodigal son in the parable is an example for this: his life ended as a broken life and all of it was due to his own making. In all of us this “prodigal son” is present and is at work! The turning point in the life of the prodigal son was that he realized and recognized the blessings of being in “father’s house, ‘if not as a son, at least as a slave/servant! He had picked up courage to decide, to get up and go back to the father’s house without worrying whether the father would receive him or not! The Holy season of Lent is a fresh invitation by our God, the “prodigal father,” who waits and wants the return of His estranged sons and daughters!
We have to see the value of being with the Father in “His House” Children while growing up and advancing in years, we all very well know, begin to seek more and more freedom from the parents and elders. Guiding and regulating the child is the parental responsibility but at certain point the child has to be left free with the hope that the child come of age would go about his/her life doing things in the right way! The “right way” is a matter of gradual learning and personalizing certain way of thinking and acting within the boundaries of the basic or fundamental ethical and social values.
Each individual person has to mold his/her character and personality that respects and lives by certain basic social ethical and religious values. This formation and growth of personality and character is helped and facilitated by parents, elders and teachers, especially teachers of religion. But, we know that the exercise of one’s freedom is involved, freedom to decide and do things with a commitment to the basic ethical and religious values or go the opposite way. One has to see the value of abiding by some basic social ethical and religious values! Being in “the father’s house,” means that our freedom is relative freedom and not absolute freedom.
The “prodigal son” in us tempts us to want to be completely on our own, absolutely free! This leads to abandonment of the family and the inter-personal relationships between the members in the given family. As Christian believers we profess our belonging to a Community, the Church, and as such we will have to be committed to the teachings of Jesus Christ and of the Church. When we yield to the temptation of being on our own and doing things on our own, there is the danger of breaking our relationship or going against the expected manner of relating with God and others!
We cannot be alone and isolated
As human beings we will always belong to or are related to others: a family, a community, a religious tradition or institution, a society, a culture, a work place,and so on. In our everyday life, it is not possible to be completely on our own without hurting the relationships or snapping the relationships with others. Going that way is a wrong thing to do! But, we see this happening in the families and in the communities. As believers in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, we know we are adopted sons and daughters of God in and through this Son of God.
Therefore, we cannot be completely cut off from this relationship with God and from others in the Community of believers! But, because we have the freedom or want to enjoy the freedom, we can end up by “leaving the Father’s house,” cut off from the relationship with God and with our neighbors! This is a sinful situation! The “prodigal son” present in us can lead the best among us to this kind of situation! I am free does not mean that I can do whatever I like or break away from my relationship with God and with others.
The crucial question here is, do we value our being in the “Father’s House” more than other things that prompt us to “leave the Father’s Hosue?” Here, as believers in God and as members of the Christian Community, leaving the Father’s House, would amount to saying, “not your teachings, not your commandments and statutes, not as you want me to see and act but my way, my pleasures and my plans.” In the Biblical language, it is an abandoning of the covenantal relationship with God and with others!