Originally published at The Catholic Thing
Of all the parables Jesus told, the two most famous are found only in St. Luke’s Gospel. Both the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son are so familiar even to non-Christians that they’ve entered into the common lexicon. We have Good Samaritan laws, and we refer to anyone who returns from a wayward path as a prodigal son. That familiarity can induce a certain fatigue. Perhaps, though, we might take a different approach and look at such things, as we should look at all things, through the eyes of Jesus.
For after all, He is the true Prodigal Son, who leaves His Father’s house and sets off to a far country. There, He squanders his inheritance, living among the filth of sin with tax collectors and prostitutes, and spends Himself completely, giving away all He has – His teachings and miracles, His own Mother, His very Body and Blood. And having taken our sins upon Himself, He then rises up and returns to the Father’s house, where He is robed in glory, never to depart again.
It is a telling detail, then, that in his litany of grievances, the older son in the parable singles out the Prodigal’s association with
