Return: A Contemplation on the Prodigal Son
Translated from a sermon by Fr Daoud Lamei
I only want one thing from you, to return. Return without saying anything. Don’t think that there is punishment for your past, it will be wiped away.
Yet don’t think that there aren’t any consequences. There are still consequences. I can’t take back the heartbreak. I can’t take back the money that was lost. I can’t take back the disrespect. I can’t take back your lapse in judgement.
Regardless of it all, it doesn’t change My Love for you. I only want one thing – for you to return and enjoy the pleasures of being My child.
Nothing displeases the heart of the Lord more than knowing that you are upset or uncomfortable. There is only one way out – to return to His loving embrace.
And you still rebel from the Lord, and it only leads to a downward spiral from there. So many parents can relate to this with their own children. Do you think a parent can bare to see their children as slaves of the world? They are slaves to cigarettes, to alcohol, to sexual desires. They even allow themselves to become slaves to their job and the love of money.
Our God is very rich and gives openly to His children, so then why be a slave to the world? Who can hear you like God? Who can give you like God can? You’re sitting at home tired and stressed, but it all comes down to one thing. Return.
Everyone thinks that when they do return, they will be met with harsh discipline and condemnation for their mistakes. There is nothing of this with the Lord.
The first thing that breaks the heart of God is when we were in His church, in His house, serving His people, and yet, we have moments of weakness when we fight with Him and treat Him as if He were oppressing us. Isn’t that what the older brother did to his father? He says, “these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time.”– Luke 15:29.
We are just like the older brother. I have been serving you so many years and I pray to You. Why is this happening to me? How could YOU give me tribulation?
Alas, trials are love and benevolence from the Lord. Sometimes man has the audacity to accuse God of being harsh and oppressive. We think He is not just. Sometimes the religious man accuses God of displaying favouritism toward the non-religious. He questions that maybe he should’ve gone down the wrong path so that God would be with him.
In reality, This is a favour from our Lord. The day that God comes to give you a crown of blessing, you can no longer stand the discomfort? You yell at God and you make Him out to be harsh. You think that He doesn’t understand. You accuse God of wrong doing. Sometimes you accuse God that He isn’t even there.
God replies that He has always been by our side. You don’t have any right to accuse God of any wrongdoing. All rights belong to God. All the wisdom is with God.
Yet God remains silent. As if He were the One in the wrong. He is the accused. He is guilty. God is always right in what He does. As the psalmist said,
“That You may be found just when You speak,
And blameless when You judge.” – Psalm 51:4.
Everything He says is truth. Nothing can sadden God more than the heart that is hardened.
The brother of the prodigal son questioned his father. How could his father accept his son after he had hardened his heart against him? He questioned his father’s judgement and authority, he was not moved by love in the same way his father was.
God tells us that we should be happy when those that once dwelled in sin return. Sometimes, it is almost like we wanted to see those that were once far from God suffer for their sins. This is not in the nature of God. He asks us, “why can’t you take after Your Father and forgive as I forgive you?”
Sometimes many Christians are waiting to see the day sinners are repaid for their wrongdoing. God looks at their hearts and says, “where did you get this harshness from? It doesn’t come from Me! I am waiting for the day that they repent.”
God waits for all of them to return, and see heaven. But why are our hearts hardened toward the sinners? If the one does wrong to you once, we wait for the day that they are repaid for their wrongdoing.
Why all this enmity? God answers us quite simply, “your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.” – Luke 15:32.
We should be joyful at the return of a sinner. God is saddened by the harshness of our hearts that we cannot even withstand wrongdoing done against us. Every time someone does something wrong against you, think of yourself as a child of God. In this sense, they have not wronged you but they have wronged God.
Yet God remains silent, the same way He is when we do wrong. Why are we so vocal? Your heart is different to the heart of God. How sad is God’s heart when He sees those that think they know Him, but their hearts are not like His. They are hearts of stone and unforgiving.
This was about your ultimate return. On the day that your brother returns, come and be joyful with God. Don’t break the heart of God on the day of His greatest joy. Come and be joyful with the Lord, and do not retain the sins against you, “for your brother was dead and is alive again.”