Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fourth Sunday in Lent

Return of the Prodigal by Heinz Tschanz-Hofmann

Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.’ And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry. Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.’ But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’” (Luke 15:11–32)

When he came to himself, the text reads, he said, How many hired men in my father’s house have bread in abundance! Previously, when he departed from his father, he had ceased to be himself; now, he came to himself. He first returned to himself that he might return to his father. The man who is unmindful of his father’s devotion, and forgetful of his parent’s love, departs from himself, and changes his whole self from man to beast.…

I will get up and go to my father. He who said ‘I will arise’ was lying down. He had understood his fall, he was aware of his ruin, and gazed upon himself lying in the mire of disgraceful prodigality. That is why he cried out: ‘I will get up and go to my father.’ With what hope? With what confidence? With what assurance?

With what hope? With that by which: He is a father. I have squandered the marks of a son; he has not lost the characteristics of a father. It is not a stranger who intercedes with a father; rather, it is that affection inside his own breast which intervenes and pleads. The father’s heart is moved to beget his son again through forgiveness. I shall go as a culprit to a father. But a father, on seeing his son, soon covers up the guilt. He conceals his role of judge, and is more eager to fulfill that of father. He wants his son to return, not to perish, and soon changes his condemnation into forgiveness.

I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee. His confession touches his father; his repentance addresses his sire. ‘I have sinned against heaven and before thee.’ He in heaven against whom he sinned is not merely an earthly father, but indeed a heavenly Father. That is why the son added: ‘before thee.’ All things which are done in heaven and on earth are before the eyes of God.

I have sinned against heaven and before thee. I am no longer worthy to be called thy son. The son set out abroad and fled into a far country; but he did not escape from those accusing witnesses, the eyes of the heavenly Father. David explains this more clearly by his words: ‘Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy face? If I ascend into heaven thou art there; if I descend into hell thou art present. If I take my wings early in the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea: Even there shall thy hand lead me: and thy right hand shall hold me.’ David sees that throughout the world all transgressions stand exposed to the eyes of God. Neither the sky, nor the earth, nor the seas, nor a deep cavern, nor night itself can hide sins from Him. The Psalmist perceives how criminal and evil it is to sin in the sight of God. Therefore, he cries out: ‘To thee only have I sinned, and have done evil before thee.’

In similar manner, therefore, the younger son, too, cries aloud, and exclaims: I have sinned against heaven and before thee. I am no longer worthy to be called thy son. He does not say: ‘I am not worthy to be thy son,’ but: ‘I am not worthy to be called thy son.’ The reason is that to be called pertains to grace; to be pertains to nature. Listen to the Apostle saying: ‘from him who called you to the grace of Christ.’ Therefore, since this younger son had lost the characteristic of his nature as a son, he judged himself not to deserve that which pertains to grace.

Make me as one of thy hired men. Look! To what point of his power has the son come? Look! To what have wanton pleasure and youthful license promoted him? ‘Make me as one of thy hired men,’ he cries. He desires his servitude to be renewed by his leasing out his services every year. He desires to pay off the obligations of his contract gradually by his unceasing labor. He desires to be as one of the slaves born in his father’s house, to sigh the whole day in work which brings but little pay, and never to be able to get out of his state of dependence. There is a reason why he asks for this. Under a foreign master he had experienced a freedom which was really slavery; and he believes that under his father he will have a slavery which is really freedom.

Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 2