This Prodigal Son Is Every Human Being

Those who know the parable of the prodigal son, remember this story as a beautiful portrayal of the rich mercy of God. A son leaves his father, squandering every gift that he inherits. He ends up in a place very far from his father’s love and care, where he lives hungry and unsatisfied. He eventually comes to himself in this place, realizing that his father’s servants live more satisfied that he does. So he decides to humbly return to the father who loves him. Rather than rebuke his son, the father “embraced and kissed him” upon his return, treating the young man with more mercy than anyone reading the story might think he deserves (Luke 15:11-32).

In his Apostolic Exhortation, “Reconciliation and Penance,” Saint John Paul II writes:

This prodigal son is every human being: bewitched by the temptation to separate himself from his Father in order to lead his own independent existence; disappointed by the emptiness of the mirage which had fascinated him; alone, dishonored, exploited when he tries to build a world all for himself sorely tried, even in the depths of his own misery, by the desire to return to communion with his Father. Like the father in the parable, God looks out for the return of his child, embraces him when he arrives and orders the banquet of the new meeting with which the reconciliation is celebrated.

The most striking element of the parable is the father's festive and loving welcome of the returning son: It is a sign of the mercy of God, who is always willing to forgive. Let us say at once: Reconciliation is principally a gift of the heavenly Father (5).

God loves us like the father in the parable loves his son. We turn away from Him daily, abusing the good gifts He has given us. And He welcomes us back daily, giving us the gift of reconciliation with His merciful heart.

We celebrate this gift through the Sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession, “a great gift of healing that brings about closer union with the Lord” and with the Church (YOUCAT 235). Our Baptism reconciles us with God, but we need Confession because Baptism “does not free us from human weakness and the inclination to sin. That is why we need a place where we can be reconciled with God again and again” (YOUCAT 226).

Jesus instituted the Sacrament of Reconciliation when he said: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:22-23). He forgave sins during His life on earth, and he gave this power to the Apostles, who handed it on to priests of the Church (CCC 1443-1444).

Many people wonder why we need to go to a priest when we could go directly to God with our sins. The Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that, “We rationalize our sins away and like to sweep things under the rug. That is why God wants us to tell our sins and to acknowledge them in a personal encounter” (228).

We prepare ourselves for this personal encounter by examining our consciences and expressing contrition and a resolution not to commit sin again. We confess our sins to a real person, who through the power of the Holy Spirit, forgives us of these sins and gives us a proper, liberating penance.

Many of us attempt to avoid the reality of our sins, or quite the opposite, we become so burdened by them, that we either fear confessing them or fear that God will not forgive them. Both this blindness and this fear do no good. Instead they feed into the sins festering in our souls, and they keep us from the merciful Lord who “came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

Rather than let fear keep us away from the confessional, we should embrace the “gift of Reconciliation,” as St. John Paul II calls it, and run towards the loving embrace of the Father. For in His healing embrace is true and satisfying freedom.