Sunday of the Prodigal Son

Date: 15 February 2009 07:07:59

Kontakion: I have recklessly forgotten Your glory, O Father; and among sinners I have scattered the riches which You had given me. Therefore, I cry to You like the Prodigal: "I have sinned before You, O compassionate Father; receive me a penitent and make me as one of Your hired servants." This Sunday is a most wonderful reminder in the lead-up to Great Lent of the need to "return' to our true home and to a relationship with our Creator. The icon above is one of my favourites, it capturing the events and the spirit of Christ's Parable of the Prodigal Son [I have asked another blogger, Fr Stephen, on the symbolism of the person riding(?) the bull at bottom-right; when I find out I will add it in here]. I managed to get up early enough to attend Matins [I have been rather lazy for quite some time; may the Lord have mercy on me], so I was able to hear some of the beautiful hymns for today; and more than that I was able to read some of them as Wissam called me up [there being very few people today...perhaps the wintry weather [in summer for us!] has something to do with it] to where the choir stand to read a few: a blessing. The riches of the grace which You, O Saviour, did give me, I spent vainly, wretched one, when I set out on a hapless journey. Living in extravagance with devils, I squandered it in an evil way. But having returned, receive me, O compassionate Father, as the prodigal son, and save me. I offer You, Lord, the voice of the prodigal son, crying, I have sinned in Your sight, O good One, and squandered the fortune of Your gifts. Albeit, receive me repentant, O Saviour, and save me. I too have come, O compassionate One, like the prodigal son, I who spent all my life-time in estrangement, and squandered the riches which You gave me, O Father. Wherefore, receive me, O God, repentant, and have mercy upon me. When in extravagance I spent and squandered the fortune of fatherly riches, I became a wanderer, living in the country of the wicked. And unable longer to bear their company, I shall return to You, O compassionate Father, crying, I have sinned against heaven, and therefore You, and am no more worthy to be called a son of Yours: make me as one of Your hired servants, O God, and have mercy upon me. O Good Father, I have withdrawn from You. Do not forsake me nor cast me out from Your kingdom. The most evil enemy has stripped me naked and robbed me of my fortune; and I have wasted the gifts of the soul in riotous living. Wherefore, I will rise and return to You, crying, Make me as one of You hired servants, O You who for my sake did stretch Your pure hands on the Cross to snatch me from the wicked beast, and clothe me with the first robe, since You alone are most compassionate. I also found as today's services ended I was upset as I wanted more; I wanted more hymns, more readings, more explanations of how I am like the Prodigal [or the Elder Brother as was brouht out in the sermon]; I simply found myself wanting more. In his wonderful book Great Lent: Journey to Pascha, which I am reading again [and finding new insights and challenges each time I do; and often I find the same challenges facing me!], Fr Alexander Schmemann writes of this Sunday, which he describes as a "Return from Exile": "...It is easy indeed to confess that I have not fasted on prescribed days, or missed my prayers, or become angry. It is quite a different thing, however, to realize suddenly that I have defiled and lost my spiritual beauty, that I am far away from my real home, my real life, and that something precious and pure and beautiful has been hopelessly broken in the very texture of my existence. Yet this, and only this, is repentance, and therefore it is also a deep desire to return, to go back, to recover that lost home ... And all this I have lost, all this I am losing all the time, not only in particular "sins" and "transgressions", but in the sin of all sins: the deviation of my love from God, preferring the "far country" to the beautiful home of the Father." pp. 21-2, 6th printing [2001], St Vladimir's Seminary Press, Crestwood, N.Y. May God help us all to return home into his welcoming and loving arms this Lenten season.