Our pre-Lenten journey began with the story of Zacchaeus’s Desire to see God, a desire that all of us need to share as we prepare for this time of repentance. On the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, we read that incredibly thought-provoking text from St. Ephraim the Syrian on humility. Many of us listened in tears as our consciences gripped us in realizing just how far we have gone in turning our backs to the love of God…yet those tears were so necessary and important dear ones! The fathers and mothers of the Church say that to see our sinfulness, to see just how fallen and blinded we are by the fleeting pleasures of the world, is greater than a vision of angels! Repentance cannot truly begin without tear-filled humility!
I had the opportunity to converse with Fr. Silviu Bunta, a professor of Old Testament Studies for St. Vladimir’s Seminary and a priest in our diocese, about a comment he made a few years back at our Lenten Retreat. He said: “The key to our advancing towards the love of God, is to come to the stark realization that “I am nothing…yet I mean everything to God””. This realization isn’t just something to think about on a Sunday morning. It is a mentality that really needs to sink down into the depths of our hearts.
I am nothing, yet I mean everything to God”. Perhaps there is no greater place in scripture that this axiom is highlighted than in the parable of the Prodigal Son. It has been said that if all of scripture was lost, and if this was the only parable that was preserved, it alone would be enough for our salvation, because it clearly defines how the relationship between God and Man works! The parable begins by describing the tragic journey of a young son who turned his heart away from the life with his Father. He demanded his inheritance, went off into a far country, and squandered it in prodigal living. When a famine overtook the land, after having everything that he desired in the material world, the son found himself unable to satisfy his hunger as he was sitting with the pigs, eating the husks that he was supposed to be feeding them. All of those worldly desires had left him completely empty!
This is where the entire parable takes an incredible turn that we should all take to heart. Scripture says that the son “came to himself…”. Those three words represent a huge moment for this young man. In his humility, he realized how far he had fallen, and that “he was nothing. “ He remembered that sitting in misery was not the way life was meant to be.
Those three words also represent a big moment for us in our relationship with God. When we get to the point in our lives where we desire to grasp on to eternal life, and are tired of living a life of separation from our Father, there are two things that can happen:
1.) We ignore the truth, smother the voice of our conscience, and continue to converse with the pigs (our passions or the “shackles” that St. Ephraim mentioned in his psalter)
2.) We do as the prodigal son did and begin to turn our heart back towards our Father, who when he sees us coming from “afar off”, runs to embrace us in our return.
The Church, in her infinite wisdom, aims to teach us today that yes, we are all lost sheep. There are moments in all of our lives where our hearts have turned away from the Father. Yet despite the darkness and no matter how far we have fallen, the moment that we begin our journey on this path to repentance, our healing, transfiguration, and salvation can begin. And what awaits us at the end? Like the prodigal son, when we are still a long way off, the Father sees us, has compassion on us, and runs to embrace us!
This kind of joy is unmatched in the world! To see the compassion, love, excitement from the Heavenly Father, as he watches his creation return from the error of its ways back towards the joys of the Kingdom…there is no greater joy! This is our life with Christ!
Fr. Zacharias Zacharou in his new book “At The Doors of Holy Lent” says: “The love of God is madness, because He loves us even though we are His ungrateful and senseless enemies. The father who fell on his neck and kissed the prodigal son is the God himself who so loved the world, that He gave His Only-Begotten Son, that whoever Believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
The Love of God is what emboldens us in our journey to restoring the gifts that humanity was given in the beginning. If one of our children dishonors or leaves their father or mother in shame, it becomes easier for them to run back into their parents embrace if they know just how much unconditional love parents truly have for their children, so it is with our relationship with God! Knowing how much we have wasted the gifts we have been given, we are strengthened by the fact that no matter how dark our lives have become, the Father is waiting with His arms outstretched for us to return home. He brings us the best robe to put on. He puts the finest ring on our hands and sandals on our feet. He throws a heavenly banquet for all those who return in repentance…because His creation that was once lost, is now found.
We were dead dear ones…and now in Christ, we are made alive again!