LENT IS FOR US TO FEEL FORGIVENThis parable is for
all of us who have at some time left the Father's house to embark on the
fantasy of walking in the footsteps of the Prodigal Son. It wasn't just a
coincidence that Christ told it to us. He did it to show us that he knew the
fragile clay we are made of, that he knew our sins beforehand. He did it
toshow us his mercy by forgiving us
even before we offended him.1.This parable is for the restless and the
dreamers, for those who have a desire rooted deep in their soul: to be
happy. A desire that God himself placed in our hearts, a desire we should not
be ashamed of. A desire that we fight for until we quench that thirst for
happiness which seems to consume us.This parable is also
for the misguided soul that thinks it can satisfy its thirst in the muddy
waters of pleasure. For the one who eagerly hopes to hold all earthly pleasures
in his hands, and yet feels them running through his fingers without satisfying
his thirst, but instead leaving him parched in the arid desert of his passions.
This parable is therefore for each of us who seek our happiness, expecting to
find it in the passing pleasures the world offers us.2.For a Father, the best of all is his son.For a Father,
happiness is the good of his son. For a Father, the greatest sorrow is seeing
his son enslaved to sin, to the vice of alcohol, of drugs, to the vice of
lying, of infidelity, of hatred, of sorrow, or of vengeance... For a Father,
the greatest desire is to have his son at his side, close to his breast. For a
Father, his son is the whole world to him. Maybe we are nothing in the eyes of
the world, but in God's eyes, we are everything.3. it’s useless to
try to hide this reality:we are all prodigal sons and daughters.We have all
demanded of our Father the inheritance of our freedom. And he has given it to
us. We have all taken our liberty and set off for the distant lands of sin,
there to squander it and run after the shadows of a happiness that vanishes
into thin air when we try to take hold of it.This parable is for
those who learn from their mistakes. For those who understand that in the house
they ran away from, there waits a loving Father who is more willing to forgive
than to punish. Let us not doubt, but arise and run to this Father!Brothers
and Sisters: it is better to have been like the Prodigal Son and come back
repentant to the Father's house, willing to love him as he loves us, than to be
like the other son in the parable who although he never went away, was always
distant from his Father.