THE LOST SON AND THE LOST WORLD.

FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT. YEAR C.
March 18, 2007.
(First Reading: Joshua 5:9-12) (Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:17-21)
(Gospel Reading: Luke 15:1-32)

THE LOST SON(1) AND
THE LOST WORLD.

Whether we speak of our family or our world, what makes them 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 it is the father who 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 and the dissipation that come 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", 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 stubbornly hold onto the wealth accumulated in their hands and the power that comes with it(3).

The loss 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 first came 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; then, "coming to his senses" he decides to return to his family. Indeed, it was only up to him to 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" (of dissipation for the powerful but of suffering for the oppressed) is, indeed, too attractive to give up unless, of course, "a severe famine" 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 return of the lost son is the 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 death; the return of the lost son meant a true 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 of fragmentation 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.