THE PRODIGAL SON

 

          THE PRODIGAL SON

            The story of ‘The Prodigal Son’ is given in the Bible. It goes like this:

             A person had two sons. The younger one was extravagant. He said to the father: Give me the portion of goods that fall to my share. The father agreed and the son went to a far off country where he wasted all his goods by riotous living.

            And when he was left with no goods, there occurred a mighty famine which made him a pauper. He then went to an employer of that country who posted him into his fields to feed swine. There he filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat.

            This miserable condition reminded him of his father,  and he said to himself: “How many hired servants of my father have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!  I will arise and go to him , and will say , “Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me one of thy hired servants.”

            Then he actually returned to his father who, as he saw him, was filled with compassion, fell on his neck and kissed him.  The son said to him: Father, I have sinned against Heaven and in thy sight I am no longer to be called thy son.”

            But the father said to his servants: “Bring forth the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat, and be merry. For this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.”

            But when his elder son returned from the field and the father told him: Thy brother is come and I have received him safe and sound.“

            The elder son was very agitated and unhappy. And to appease him, the father said :  “Son thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should merry and be glad, for thy brother was dead, and is alive again, and was lost, but found again.”

            The moral of this Biblical story is the miraculous result of repentance and atonement.

            The Father in the story is God who forgives his unlawful wicked sons when they repent whole-heartedly.

            To conclude: The Persian mystical poet Jalaluddin  Rumi (1207-1273) says:

            Come, come, whoever you are.

            Wanderer,  fire- worshipper, lover of leaving.

             This is not a caravan of despair

            It does not matter that you have broken your vow

            A thousand times, still come,

            And yet again come.

                                                            *******

G.R.Kanwal

20 May 2025