The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (15:11-32)

This Sunday as we continue our preparation for Great and Holy Lent we are privileged to hear one of the most beautiful parables of all time, the parable of the prodigal son. We are told of two sons in this parable. One of whom is called “prodigal” which means “Rashly or wastefully extravagant.”

This rash young man proves himself to be prodigal when he goes to his father and asks for his share of the inheritance. He goes further by taking this inheritance and using it in ways that are not helpful to others but only for selfish desires, for things that are passing away. He lives in a continual love of the world, it’s desires, and the things of the world that feed his passions. He is completely consumed by self and has no room in his heart for the other.

But there are so many lessons for us as we prepare for the lenten journey together. The first is that hunger is your friend. The prodigal son wasted all that he had been given in “loose living.” He partied. He ate, drank and enjoyed life to the excess. But the party always has to end, and in this case it ended once he ran out of his father’s wealth. He ended up needing to go out and get a job like normal people do, and during this process of failure and the subsequent hard work, he found himself literally filled with hunger. Little did he know that the bodily hunger awakened in him a desire for a real change. What kind of change? Most importantly, a change of heart and this change of heart led to a change in his actions, in his living situation, his environment. This led to a change in his whole life.

Our Holy Orthodox Church teaches us that the appetites can easily be swayed and turn us away from God because we have appetites for so many things due to our fallen nature and the passions or sinful inclinations that we carry within us. Adam and Eve fell due to their appetite. They were not thankful and content with what God had provided them although He had provided them with everything good. The Church also teaches us that hunger is a tool that helps us to regain our senses. That is why we fast as a community. The fast is meant to slowly help us regain our senses and our proper way in life when it is coupled with prayer. Lent helps us to reorient our lives back to God, if we humbly participate in the process of prayer and fasting.

Fasting awakens us to deeper realities, to our alienation from God. When we are hungry, physically and spiritually, we begin to look at our life and assess the situation. We begin to look at our life with God and we might choose to turn back to Him with our whole heart. But that rarely happens when we are full and happy, when we are content.

This is what happened to the young man. He was hungry and he came to his senses. Maybe God allows our lives to be a bit difficult in order that we might also come to our senses. Pain is an efficient teacher. God doesn’t allow these things because He is merciless, but rather out of His mercy towards us. When an infant first starts to walk, it is a painful and difficult experience for her. But if her mother sees this difficulty and chooses to carry her in order to keep her from struggling, she will never develop the muscles and the nerve fibers and the properly firing neurons that are needed to carry her own bodyweight. If God bails us out every time things begin to feel heavy, we won’t grow our spiritual muscles, we won’t repent, we won’t seek His face in prayer. Our souls will not be changed and this is a tragedy because the soul is going to live on forever.

Now the young man comes to his sense from hunger, and he returns and we see this beautiful biblical imagery. While this prodigal son is still a long ways away, we see the image of His father who is standing out front looking for him. When he catches a glimpse of his son, he runs out to meet him. It is such a lovely image of our life in Christ. I have an icon of this parable in my office and it is just glorious because the iconographer has rightly pictured the father in the parable as Jesus Christ, the one who loves us unconditionally. We squander everything that is given to us, in baptism, in spiritual gifts, in our many blessings and yet He continues to welcome and embrace each of us. Only there is one thing He cannot and will not do. He will not run out to meet us while we are turned away from Him. Because in His perfect love, He doesn’t force Himself upon us. He needs us to need Him. He needs us to turn back and fix our eyes on Him.

As the Father returns with His son a great banquet begins to transpire. There is a cause for celebration, a great cause for joy. One man has returned from being lost. He has returned from the brink of death. Now his father and his father’s household are full of overwhelming joy. This is how we should remember our own return to Christ and His Church. It is a great celebration. Our Lord Jesus Christ says, “I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” Luke 15:7

We should also feel this joy when we are solid and steadfast members of the household of God and when we see other men and women come to Christ and to His Church. Even when someone who was previously a member of the Church returns and comes back after a long absence. But we know that this is not always the case and it is symbolized in the animosity of the other son who never left his father and was never thrown a party.

But his father reminds him, he was always privileged to be in his father’s presence and under his father’s roof with his father’s many blessings. He lacked nothing at all. Likewise, when we are here in the Church we lack nothing of the gifts of God and the inheritance of the saints. We receive the sacraments, we are clothed with the fruit of Holy Spirit. We live the divine life. We should rejoice when others also find this place and come back to life. We rejoice because that which is most precious to God has been redeemed and brought back to life.

So as we draw near to lent let us embrace some hunger and discomfort, let us turn our eyes back to Christ and let us not focus on others but rejoice that they are also struggling to put Christ first in their lives. Glory be to God forever AMEN.

Source: Sermons