THE LOST SON AND THE LOST WORLD.

TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME. YEAR C.
September 16, 2007.
(First Reading: Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14) (Second Reading: 1 Timothy 1:12-17)
(Gospel Reading: Luke 15:1-32)

THE LOST SON(1) AND THE LOST WORLD.

What makes our family or our world wholesome is the unity among their members. Whenever said unity within the family or within the world is broken, then family or world loses its integrity, ceases to be wholesome, becomes incomplete, ceases to be what it is.

In today's gospel reading, the lost son, by abandoning his family, causes it to become incomplete. And the father is the one who deeply suffers the loss of his son, for the father is fully aware that his most valuable treasure is the unity, wholesomeness, integrity of his family.

What causes the lost son to break the unity of his family?: The attraction of the wealth (and the power that comes with it) he is to receive, as he actually does, from his father. The son believed that with "his" wealth he could have a "better" life, a "life of dissipation" (Luke 15:13) and that was more important to him than the unity of his family.

Something similar to what happened to the lost son, does happen in our world to those who appropriate for themselves the wealth that belong to all humankind, they are responsible for destroying the unity among human beings, they are responsible for making humankind incomplete.

Why do the powerful of the world make mankind incomplete? Why do they break the unity among human beings? Because:
- They separate themselves from their fellow human beings by subjecting them to dispossession(2); and

- They prevent all efforts to return to unity, because they will stubbornly hold onto the wealth accumulated in their hands and the power that comes with it(3).

The lost of unity among human beings is the "state of sin" in which those who promote separation immersed our world; is the "state of sin" in which the lost son lived while he lead a "life of dissipation".

What did the lost son do in order to restore the unity of his family?: He was able to come to the realization that his life in the "distant country" far away from the unity of his family was not "better" than the life with his family; therefore, "coming to his senses" (Luke 15:18) he decides to return to his family. Indeed, it was only he the one who could make that decision (His father could only wait patiently for him).

The powerful of our world need to come to "their senses" and realize that the life of oppression and dispossession they impose on their fellow human beings does not make a better life than that where all human beings can live in unity, peace and mutual respect.

The powerful's "life of dissipation" is, indeed, too attractive to give up unless, of course, "a severe famine" (Luke 15:14) strikes and destroys their power. Human history shows that the injustice imposed by the oppressors(4) eventually becomes so chaotic that the oppressors themselves cannot control it, and so cruel that the oppressed can no longer endure it. Subsequently, with the elimination of injustice and oppression, mankind sets out to reinstate the lost unity among all human beings.

The move toward unity in the world.
The Book of Exodus gives an example of a leader - Moses - who makes every effort to bring his people back into unity with the Lord. The nation which falls into idolatry - with the idols of our world being wealth and power - will be inevitably walking into self destruction. Our world is in desperate need of leaders that can restore unity, through justice and respect, for all human beings on earth.

The First letter of Saint Paul to Timothy reminds us of how Paul becomes the greatest apostle of unity after he turned away from being the "foremost [of sinners]" - he turned away from promoting the destruction of the emerging Christians, whom he had vowed to vanish from the face of the earth.

The return of the lost son is cause of true joy.
The gospel reading tells us that the father joyfully celebrated the return of his lost son, because the unity of his family had been once again restored, because his family had become wholesome again. The separation of the lost son meant a true lost, a death. The return of the lost son meant a return to life. Thus, those who seek and bring about unity are the ones who can truly rejoice.

We can now begin to commit all our efforts and determination into ensuring that our world may one day return to unity, just like the lost son returned to the unity cherished by his father.
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Footnotes.
(1) The parable which used to be known as that of "The Prodigal Son" appears under the more appropriate title of "The Lost Son" in the 1986 Revised New Testament of the New American Bible.
(2) The oppressors of the world separate human beings into those who have the "right" to possess the wealth and power and those who are "destined" to be oppressed.
(3) The oppressors of the world operate under the model of the "older son" who is offended by the father's celebration for the lost son's return. In other words, when a person oppresses his fellow human beings he has the "life of dissipation" of the lost son within himself; and when the oppressor is asked to restore unity, the "older son" who lives in him, takes over and rejects unity. The oppressors of the world come to believe of themselves as "superior" human beings while the oppressed they regard as "inferior".
(4) The oppressors undergo a sort of "spiritual famine" which makes them insensitive to the suffering they inflict upon their fellow human beings.