Lent = Being Forgiven

`Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost and is found.'"

We all know the reading about the prodigal son.  We know that the father spends his time watching and waiting for his younger son to return.  We know how he is greeted and how he is treated.  Let's face it, the kid was a brat. He wanted what was his, all without working for it and he proceeded to lose it all. We know how he was treated once he returned,  This is a wonderful example of God's mercy, He will always take us back. But what about the older son? Let's put us in his position. Once his brother left, he was left to do all of the work. It was hot, hard, dirty work.  As the older son, you had to handle twice the workload while your brat brother was dancing with a hootchie coochie dancer and sipping cold drinks turning his liver into a hunk of wood.  But, you loved your father and you did what you had to to keep the place going.   Suddenly, this lowlife comes running home and instead of being thrown off of the place, your father welcomes him back and throws him a party.  What nerve!  You reveal your bratty side and refuse to welcome your brother back.  Your father, just as he had done for the older son, does not wait, he comes to you and tells you of his love and he affirms that although his brother is back, all that the father owns is his older sons.  He will have his reward for his loyalty.   It is now up to us to extend the olive branch to our brother and to reunite the household of the father. 

The young son and the elder son both were forgiven much. The younger for being absolutely stupid and the elder son for being so disrespectful to the father.  But the father, he showed both sons the way it was going to be in his household.  There would be no division.  He also affirmed the older son by confirming that all that he had was his.  He proved to be a loving and just father.