The Church continues to try to convince us of God's mercy, as if we find it hard to believe in its infinite depth. Today's Gospel is the middle of three Sunday Gospels that show us how far this mercy goes. Last Sunday, as we saw, God is described as a vinedresser who does not dare to cut down the fruitless fig tree. He wants to give it another chance. Next Sunday is the episode of the woman caught in adultery: Jesus also wants to give her another chance. And today's Gospel is the most famous text of all on divine mercy: the parable of the prodigal son.
We could say many things about this text (God's mercy is truly infinite), but let us limit ourselves to highlighting a few points. The first is the seriousness of the son's sin. It is not just his life of debauchery in a distant land. It is the fact that he asks for his inheritance in advance. If one takes into account that normally inheritances are only passed on at someone's death, it is as if the son said to the father: "As far as I'm concerned, you're already dead.". It's almost killing him, at least emotionally.
The next point to consider is how imperfect the son's contrition is. He returns because he is hungry and his father's servants eat well. "Thinking it over, he said to himself, 'How many of my father's day laborers have an abundance of bread, while I am starving here'.". And yet he has come to his senses and is on his way home.
This is important: when the son came out of the pigsty, he was already on his way to his father. He was not yet in his arms, but he was on his way to him. Just by getting out of a sinful situation, no matter how imperfect the motives, he is already turning to God.
And then we see the mercy of the father: "When he [the son] was still far away." (probably more spiritually than physically), "his father saw him and was moved to tears; and he ran to him and threw himself on his neck and covered him with kisses.". The father runs to the boy as if he were the inferior: there is no sense of his own dignity.
The son has prepared his speech. He would confess his sin, acknowledge that he was not worthy to be called the father's son and ask to be treated as a servant. But the surprising thing is that he does not get to say the third thing. That he is simply a servant, no matter how great his sin, is simply not an option for the father. The boy is then given back all his dignity through a series of symbolic acts (receiving the robe, the ring and the sandals) that would need another reflection to explain them, as well as the question: what does it tell us that the son will not go away again?
