Edges Magazine Issue 24: Prodigal Son

EDGES MAGAZINE Issue 24

January 2001

PRODIGAL SON

Margaret Huggan leads our Recovery Spirituality
with Drug Users.

A man had two sons. The younger said to his father, “Father, let me have the share of the estate that would come to me.” So the father divided the property between them. A few days later, the younger son got together everything he had and left for a distant country where he squandered his money on a life of debauchery.

‘When he had spent it all, that country experienced a severe famine, and now he began to feel the pinch, so he hired himself out to one of the local inhabitants who put him on his farm to feed the pigs. And he would willingly have filled his belly with the husks the pigs were eating but no one offered him anything. Then he came to his senses and said, “How many of my father’s paid servants have more food than they want, and here I am dying of hunger! I will leave this place and go to my father and say: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as one of your paid servants.” So he left the place and went back to his father.

‘While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity. He ran to the boy, clasped him in his arms and kissed him tenderly. Then his son said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son.” But his father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the calf we have been fattening, and kill it: we are going to have a feast a celebration, because this son of mine was dead and has comeback to life; he was lost and is found.” And they began to celebrate.

‘Now the elder son was out in the fields, and on his way back, as he drew near the house, he could hear music and dancing. Calling one of the servants he asked what it was all about. “Your brother has come” replied the servant” and your father has killed the calf we had fattened because he has got him back safe and sound.” He was angry then and refused to go in, and his father came out to plead with him; but he answered his father, “Look, all these years I have slaved for you and never once disobeyed your orders, yet you never offered me so much as a kid for me to celebrate with my friends. But for this son of yours, when he comes back after swallowing up your property -he and his women-you kill the calf we had been fattening.”

The father said, ”My son, you are with me always, and all I have is yours. But it was only right we should celebrate and rejoice, because your brother here was dead and has come to life; he was lost and is found.”

It is not difficult to appreciate the relevance of this story for our reconcile project. It’s the tale of a bad lad who reforms and is reconciled with his father. A story we witness as part of daily life in T.H.O.M.A.S.

There are many reflections which are helpful to the young people making their own journey home . Yet increasingly I am forced to recognise the immense power that this one has over all others. Time and again I hear the same reactions ‘that’s our story’ ‘that happened to me’ ‘that hits the spot’ or ‘that’s a b***** good story’. Bewitched by this superb narrative and intrigued by its awesome power I am drawn to investigate.

A recovering addict readily identifies with the vivid description of the younger son - in him he finds a soul mate- an inspiring friend to accompany him on his own journey home. He too mistakenly looked for kicks in a distant country, squandered all he had been given, his family, education, job, relationships:has lost even his own self. He too has felt the pinch of hunger and the misery of homelessness. But, like our young people, he came to his senses and experienced the awakening to his terrifying reality. For one reason or another he found the strength to leave that place and to attempt the arduous journey to recovery. In this story the addict finds another who knows the humiliation of admitting failure and going back in shame, vulnerable and stripped of dignity, to face everyone and fearing what they will say and how they will react. How will he be received? Because of what he has done he no longer believes he deserves to be received back. What, who has he become? Physically, spiritually, psychologically he is broken, dying.

The detail of the narrative to this point is so incredibly precise that, if allowed, it is capable of bringing the comfort of understanding to those who feel alone in their predicament.

But helpful as this is it is not to be compared with the power that can be released if the recovering addict will allow himself to travel further with his prodigal friend into the embrace of unconditional love. This is the vital step he must take if he is to truly recover. Only by discovering his true identity and accepting that this is sufficient for him to be loveable will he be able to come to life again and be able to rebuild his shattered self. It is this embrace of unconditional love that is the heart of T.H.O.M.A.S. This has the life-giving power since it allows the person to discover his true identity.

This is not an easy or rapid process. Moreover, it is often hindered by the good sons who are eager to remind him of his misdemeanours and reinforce his lack of self-worth -’once a junkie -always a junkie’. The message from the father is hard for these to accept - it upturns their values. (Here is the irony, the faithful son now distances himself from his father, refusing his father’s invitation to be reconciled! He too needs to make his own journey back to the father.)

If this story contains a powerful message to reflect upon, that is nothing compared to the power when that message becomes a lived reality.

Each day that I spend at T.H.O.M.A.S. I witness this story come alive. All the characters are here living out the story. I witness young men and women who were almost dead, come back to life. I witness the journey from lostness to being found again. And most powerfully, I witness the process and conditions whereby this transformation occurs. And I share in the celebration of new life that is ever present amidst the struggles and sorrow. I witness the power of the Gospel message as I never have before. It is an awesome privilege and continues to be the greatest source of personal faith and inspiration.

Here in the Drop In are those still experiencing all the misery that exclusion and homelessness bring. Some are in our support group - a stage on the way home. On our Reconcile project young men are on the journey home and coming to life again before our eyes. Families become reconciled, but some parents are still waiting, agonising over their lost children and desperate for that phone call, that letter. And we are here a small community, part of a growing organisation dedicated to trying to be ambassadors of reconciliation to each other and to those we have the privilege to accompany.

Yet, this is not a story for one particular section of society or one group among it. It is the story for humanity about humanity. It is everyman’s story - parents, children, society, church. Each of us in some way at some time experience homelessness and marginalisation, the pain of rejection and disintegration. We all know the fracture of relationships the agony and death -blow of unforgiveness. We all know the anger of feeling hard done by and the inability to forgive. Hopefully, we also experience the life giving power of being loved, not for what we do or don’t do but simply because of who we are.

That this particular story and its life-giving message are so powerful should come as no surprise. It comes from the imagination and lips of Jesus Christ who knew humanity from inside It comes from the imagination of a God who not only made human kind but who himself became a human. The story then isn’t just about humanity; it is also about deity. It reveals a God whose love for His creatures is great enough to draw Him to become one of us, thus enabling an experiential understanding and what its like for us. A God who wants to know, to help, to be with me. That, it seems to me, is the greatest gift of this story which its message reveals a little more of what this God, that I mostly struggle to believe in, is like. More than that, it is a message that reveals to me that I am a beloved child and heir.

We are all in this story somewhere.
The invitation is to find oneself in this story and to allow the power of the embrace of unconditional love restore us to our true self.