S&F-The Prodigal Son Part 1

At mass this Sunday Father Marc said the parable of "The Prodigal Son" might be among the most well known parables in the bible.  That's probably true so I won's repeat it here. But to summarize there is a father with 2 sons.  The younger son asks for his portion of the inheritance and goes off and spends it on debauchery.  Once he realizes his mistake he returns to his father looking for forgiveness.  His father is so glad his son has returned that he has a party to celebrate.  The older son returns from working on the field and it upset because he has been ever faithful to his father, but it is the younger son who is getting rewarded.

For the longest time I have always had trouble with this parable.  Honestly a lot of Jesus's parables go over my head.  In fact this is part of a series of 3 parables that I have always had trouble understanding.  Why would a shepherd leave his 99 sheep to find one lost sheep?  Doesn't he risk losing the other 99 if he ignores them just to find one?  And why would a woman be so excited to find the one coin she lost?  She has 9 after all.  Why waste energy just to find that one coin?  It will probably turn back up on its own.

So in the case of the prodigal son I have always felt sorry for the older son.  He was faithful to his father.  He followed his instructions.  Why should the younger son get rewarded for being unfaithful and wasting his money, especially on libations and prostitutes?

What I realize now is the older son is just as guilty of sin as his younger brother.  He might have been outwardly faithful to his father, but he really is just guilty of the sin of envy.  Rather than being happy for what he had, he felt he deserved more.  So much had jealously enveloped him that he refused to celebrate his brothers return.

I know what Jesus was trying to explain to the people was that we should welcome  the sinners and tax collectors back to The Kingdom of God.  But it is hard to do so if we feel like we have been faithful for so long and they are just coming back.  Let us learn from the older brother and not make the same mistakes he made.  Let us celebrate the return to the faith of everyone no matter what their past or when they recognize our Heavenly Father.  After all we should all get to partake in the fattened calf (unless your vegan, but I'm sure that God will have something for you as well).