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MERCY
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. BIBLE . Diary . Rich in Mercy [ I ] [ II ] [ III ] [ IV ] [ V ] [ VI ] [ VII ] [ VIII ]
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IOANNES PAULUS PP. II |
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IV.
THE PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL SON 5. An Analogy At
the very beginning of the New Testament, two voices resound in St. Luke's
Gospel in unique harmony concerning the mercy of God, a harmony which
forcefully echoes the whole Old Testament tradition. They express the
semantic elements linked to the differentiated terminology of the ancient
books. Mary, entering the house of Zechariah, magnifies the Lord with all her
soul for "his mercy," which "from generation to
generation" is bestowed on those who fear Him. A little later, as she
recalls the election of Israel, she proclaims the mercy which He who has
chosen her holds "in remembrance" from all time.60 Afterwards, in the same house, when
John the Baptist is born, his father Zechariah blesses the God of Israel and
glorifies Him for performing the mercy promised to our fathers and for
remembering His holy covenant.61 In
the teaching of Christ Himself, this image inherited from the Old Testament
becomes at the same time simpler and more profound. This is perhaps most
evident in the parable of the prodigal son.62 Although the word "mercy"
does not appear, it nevertheless expresses the essence of the divine mercy in
a particularly clear way. This is due not so much to the terminology, as in
the Old Testament books, as to the analogy that enables us to understand more
fully the very mystery of mercy, as a profound drama played out between the
father's love and the prodigality and sin of the son. That
son, who receives from the father the portion of the inheritance that is due
to him and leaves home to squander it in a far country "in loose
living," in a certain sense is the man of every period, beginning with
the one who was the first to lose the inheritance of grace and original
justice. The analogy at this point is very wide- ranging. The parable
indirectly touches upon every breach of the covenant of love, every loss of grace,
every sin. In this analogy there is less emphasis than in the prophetic
tradition on the unfaithfulness of the whole people of Israel, although the
analogy of the prodigal son may extend to this also. "When he had spent
everything," the son "began to be in need," especially as
"a great famine arose in that country" to which he had gone after
leaving his father's house. And in this situation "he would gladly have
fed on" anything, even "the pods that the swine ate," the
swine that he herded for "one of the citizens of that country." But
even this was refused him. The
analogy turns clearly towards man's interior. The inheritance that the son
had received from his father was a quantity of material goods, but more
important than these goods was his dignity as a son in his father's house.
The situation in which he found himself when he lost the material goods
should have made him aware of the loss of that dignity. He had not thought
about it previously, when he had asked his father to give him the part of the
inheritance that was due to him, in order to go away. He seems not to be
conscious of it even now, when he says to himself: "How many of my
father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here
with hunger." He measures himself by the standard of the goods that he
has lost, that he no longer "possesses," while the hired servants
of his father's house "possess" them. These words express above all
his attitude to material goods; nevertheless under their surface is concealed
the tragedy of lost dignity, the awareness of squandered sonship.
It
is at this point that he makes the decision: "I will arise and go to my
father, and I will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and
before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of
your hired servants.'"63 These are words that reveal more
deeply the essential problem. Through the complex material situation in which
the prodigal son found himself because of his folly, because of sin, the
sense of lost dignity had matured. When he decides to return to his father's
house, to ask his father to be received-no longer by virtue of his right as a
son, but as an employee-at first sight he seems to be acting by reason of the
hunger and poverty that he had fallen into; this motive, however, is
permeated by an awareness of a deeper loss: to be a hired servant in his own
father's house is certainly a great humiliation and source of shame.
Nevertheless, the prodigal son is ready to undergo that humiliation and
shame. He realizes that he no longer has any right except to be an employee
in his father's house. His decision is taken in full consciousness of what he
has deserved and of what he can still have a right to in accordance with the
norms of justice. Precisely this reasoning demonstrates that, at the center
of the prodigal son's consciousness, the sense of lost dignity is emerging, the
sense of that dignity that springs from the relationship of the son with the
father. And it is with this decision that he sets out. In
the parable of the prodigal son, the term "justice" is not used
even once; just as in the original text the term "mercy" is not
used either. Nevertheless, the relationship between justice and love, that is manifested as mercy, is inscribed with great
exactness in the content of the Gospel parable. It becomes more evident that
love is transformed into mercy when it is necessary to go beyond the precise
norm of justice-precise and often too narrow. The prodigal son, having wasted
the property he received from his father, deserves - after his return - to
earn his living by working in his father's house as a hired servant and
possibly, little by little, to build up a certain provision of material
goods, though perhaps never as much as the amount he had squandered. This
would be demanded by the order of justice, especially as the son had not only
squandered the part of the inheritance belonging to him but had also hurt and
offended his father by his whole conduct. Since this conduct had in his own
eyes deprived him of his dignity as a son, it could not be a matter of
indifference to his father. It was bound to make him suffer. It was also
bound to implicate him in some way. And yet, after all, it was his own son
who was involved, and such a relationship could never be altered or destroyed
by any sort of behavior. The prodigal son is aware of this and it is
precisely this awareness that shows him clearly the dignity which he has lost
and which makes him honestly evaluate the position that he could still expect
in his father's house. |
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6. Particular Concentration on Human Dignity This
exact picture of the prodigal son's state of mind enables us to understand
exactly what the mercy of God consists in. There is no doubt that in this
simple but penetrating analogy the figure of the father reveals to us God as
Father. The conduct of the father in the parable and his whole behavior, which
manifests his internal attitude, enables us to rediscover the individual
threads of the Old Testament vision of mercy in a synthesis which is totally
new, full of simplicity and depth. The father of the prodigal son is faithful
to his fatherhood, faithful to the love that he had always lavished on his
son. This fidelity is expressed in the parable not only by his immediate
readiness to welcome him home when he returns after having squandered his
inheritance; it is expressed even more fully by that joy, that merrymaking
for the squanderer after his return, merrymaking which is so generous that it
provokes the opposition and hatred of the elder brother, who had never gone
far away from his father and had never abandoned the home. The
father's fidelity to himself - a trait already known by the Old Testament
term hesed - is at the same time expressed in a
manner particularly charged with affection. We read, in fact, that when the
father saw the prodigal son returning home "he had compassion, ran to
meet him, threw his arms around his neck and kissed him."64 He certainly does this under the
influence of a deep affection, and this also explains his generosity towards
his son, that generosity which so angers the elder son. Nevertheless, the
causes of this emotion are to be sought at a deeper level. Notice, the father
is aware that a fundamental good has been saved: the good of his son's
humanity. Although the son has squandered the inheritance, nevertheless his
humanity is saved. Indeed, it has been, in a way, found again. The father's
words to the elder son reveal this: "It was fitting to make merry and be
glad, for this your brother was dead and is alive; he was lost and is
found."65 In the same chapter fifteen of Luke's
Gospel, we read the parable of the sheep that was found66 and then the parable of the coin that
was found.67 Each time there is an emphasis on the
same joy that is present in the case of the prodigal son. The father's fidelity
to himself is totally concentrated upon the humanity of the lost son, upon
his dignity. This explains above all his joyous emotion at the moment of the
son's return home. Going
on, one can therefore say that the love for the son the love that springs from
the very essence of fatherhood, in a way obliges the father to be concerned
about his son's dignity. This concern is the measure of his love, the love of
which Saint Paul was to write: "Love is patient and kind.. .love does not insist on its own way; it is not
irritable or resentful...but rejoices in the right...hopes all things,
endures all things" and "love never ends."68 Mercy - as Christ has presented it in
the parable of the prodigal son - has the interior form of the love that in
the New Testament is called agape. This love is able to reach down to every
prodigal son, to every human misery, and above all to
every form of moral misery, to sin. When this happens, the person who is the
object of mercy does not feel humiliated, but rather found again and
"restored to value." The father first and foremost expresses to him
his joy that he has been "found again" and that he has
"returned to life. This joy indicates a good that has remained intact:
even if he is a prodigal, a son does not cease to be truly his father's son;
it also indicates a good that has been found again, which in the case of the
prodigal son was his return to the truth about himself. What
took place in the relationship between the father and the son in Christ's
parable is not to be evaluated "from the outside." Our prejudices
about mercy are mostly the result of appraising them only from the outside.
At times it happens that by following this method of evaluation we see in
mercy above all a relationship of inequality between the one offering it and
the one receiving it. And, in consequence, we are quick to deduce that mercy
belittles the receiver, that it offends the dignity of man. The parable of
the prodigal son shows that the reality is different: the relationship of
mercy is based on the common experience of that good which is man, on the
common experience of the dignity that is proper to him. This common
experience makes the prodigal son begin to see himself and his actions in
their full truth (this vision in truth is a genuine form of humility); on the
other hand, for this very reason he becomes a particular good for his father:
the father sees so clearly the good which has been achieved thanks to a
mysterious radiation of truth and love, that he seems to forget all the evil
which the son had committed. The
parable of the prodigal son expresses in a simple but profound way the
reality of conversion. Conversion is the most concrete expression of the
working of love and of the presence of mercy in the human world. The true and
proper meaning of mercy does not consist only in looking, however
penetratingly and compassionately, at moral, physical or material evil: mercy
is manifested in its true and proper aspect when it restores to value,
promotes and draws good from all the forms of evil
existing in the world and in man. Understood in this way, mercy constitutes
the fundamental content of the messianic message of Christ and the
constitutive power of His mission. His disciples and followers understood and
practiced mercy in the same way. Mercy never ceased to reveal itself, in
their hearts and in their actions, as an especially creative proof of the
love which does not allow itself to be "conquered by evil," but
overcomes "evil with good."69 The genuine face of mercy has to be
ever revealed anew. In spite of many prejudices, mercy seems particularly
necessary for our times. |
I. HE WHO SEES ME
SEES THE FATHER
IV. THE PARABLE
OF THE PRODIGAL SON
VI.
"MERCY...FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION"
VII. THE MERCY
OF GOD IN THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH
VIII. THE
PRAYER OF THE CHURCH IN OUR TIMES
>>DIVINE MERCY APOSTOLATE
Diary Come Back To Me Rich in Mercy
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