On the third Sunday before the beginning of Great Lent, we read the well-known story of the Prodigal Son from the Gospel of St Luke. In his homily, below, Fr James Graham reminds us to pay attention also to the Dutiful Son, who felt entitled because he followed all the rules, but also sinned against his father because he lacked gratitude and compassion.
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WE LIVE RIGHTEOUSLY BECAUSE IT’S GOD’S WILL
Homily for the Second Sunday of the Triodion
1 Cor. 6:12-20 Luke 15:11-32
Everybody knows the story of the Prodigal Son. Even the phrase “Prodigal Son” has become a sort of cliché. We sometimes call a disobedient child a “prodigal son,” and a wasteful, ungrateful twenty-something is almost certain be be labelled a “prodigal son.”
And when we hear or read this Gospel story, probably most of us identify with the Prodigal Son. Maybe we don’t think so much of ourselves as greedy, wasteful, and ungrateful like him. Instead, we concentrate on how his Father loved him and forgave him and celebrated when he came back. We like to think that God, our heavenly Father, will treat us in the same way.
However, we can’t expect or count on God’s forgiveness unless we actually recognize our sins, acknowledge our sins, and repent of our sins. Notice that the son, when he comes back, tells his father: “I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son.”
We read this Gospel passage at this time of year, just before the beginning of Great Lent, to remind ourselves not only of God’s great mercy and forgiveness, but also of our sinfulness and need to repent.
And there’s another thing we have to be reminded about: our obligation and need to be grateful for what God has given us and to rejoice when sinners repent and return to God.
This is the message of the other brother. We don’t talk about him very much, and we don’t like him very much, probably because he is too much like ourselves.
We might call him the Dutiful Son instead of the Prodigal Son. He always worked with his father, he never disobeyed, he never asked for anything. It seems that he thought of himself as righteous because he always followed the rules.
But he was not joyful, he was not grateful, he was not concerned about his brother’s troubles. And when his father welcomed back his prodigal brother, and forgave him, and celebrated, the Dutiful Son was resentful. He threw a little tantrum because he was jealous and thought he didn’t get the attention he deserved. His father had to remind him, “You are always here with me; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.”
That’s what we need to keep in mind all the time—especially when we might start feeling self-righteous about always following the rules, coming to church faithfully, fasting, contributing to charity, and so on. We don’t do these things—we don’t live righteously—so that God will love us and reward us. We live righteously because it’s God’s will; it is what we are created to do. And we have to work at it every day. There is sin in the world and every day the devil is trying to lure us away from God.
The Prodigal Son and the Dutiful Son were both lured into sin, even though only one of them physically went away. Our relationship with our Father has to be not only close but also loving, not only dutiful but also grateful, not only individual but also shared. We all have to come back to our Father, who is with us always and has given us everything. And we all have to give thanks and praise and glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever and to ages of ages. Amen.