Giorgio De Chirico, The Prodigal Son (1922, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Milan) Luke 15-1-32: [1] approached him all the publicans and sinners to hear him. [2] The Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." [3] Then he told them this parable: [4] "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one, does not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until he finds it? [5] Ritrovatala, puts it on his shoulders, rejoicing, [6] goes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying: Rejoice with me, because I found my lost sheep. [7] So, I tell you, there is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no conversion. [8] Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one, light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? [9] and, when found, call her friends and neighbors, saying: Rejoice with me, because I found the coin I lost. [10] So, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. " [11] Then he said: "A man had two sons. [12] The younger one said to his father, Father, give me the share of property that falls to me. So he divided his property between them. [13] A few days later, the younger son gathered all his belongings and set off for a distant country where he squandered sue sostanze vivendo da dissoluto. [14]Quando ebbe speso tutto, in quel paese venne una grande carestia ed egli cominciò a trovarsi nel bisogno. [15]Allora andò e si mise a servizio di uno degli abitanti di quella regione, che lo mandò nei campi a pascolare i porci. [16]Avrebbe voluto saziarsi con le carrube che mangiavano i porci; ma nessuno gliene dava. [17]Allora rientrò in se stesso e disse: Quanti salariati in casa di mio padre hanno pane in abbondanza e io qui muoio di fame! [18]Mi leverò e andrò da mio padre e gli dirò: Padre, ho peccato contro il Cielo e contro di te; [19]non sono più degno di esser chiamato tuo figlio. Trattami come uno dei tuoi garzoni. [20]Partì e si incamminò verso suo father. When he was away his father saw him and compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck and kissed him. [21] The son said: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you no longer deserve to be called your son. [22] But the father said to his servants, "Quick, bring out the best robe and put it on, Put the ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. [23] Bring the fattened calf and kill it; we are celebrating, [24] For this my son was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found. And they began to celebrate. [25] The eldest son was in the field. Come back when it was close to home, he heard music and dancing; [26] called a servant and asked him what it was all about. [27] The servant answered: 'return your brother and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound. [28] He became angry and refused to go. His father came out to beg. [29] But he answered his father: Behold, I served you for many years and I never disobeyed your command, and you will not ever have given me a young goat to celebrate with my friends. [30] But now that this son of yours who has devoured your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf. [31] The father said, 'Son, you are always with me and all that is mine is yours, [32] but we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found. "
Dear friends, dear friends,
Sunday, September 16, 2007 we celebrate the XXIV Ordinary Time. It will read the Gospel of Luke from 15.1 to 32. The interlocutors of Jesus are very different: "They approached him all the publicans and sinners to hear him. The Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, 'This man welcomes sinners and eats with them'. Then he told them this parable. So "the publicans and sinners" means "hear" what "the Pharisees and scribes murmured." And Jesus, not at all frightened, he decided to tell "them this parable. His word is for everyone, but only a well-disposed to give its true listening.
On the one hand, we may be attracted by the images of his stories - the attentive caring pastor, a woman of the house and noticed a good father -; for another, digging further, we run into some verbal actions that constantly recur like a refrain: something or someone loses, someone who goes to look for and finally located with great joy.
It's easy to shepherd us back to Jesus 'Good Shepherd' (the pastor even 'beautiful' in ch. 10 of John), although in this case, Jesus seems coinvolgerci più direttamente: “Chi di voi se ha cento pecore e ne perde una, non lascia le novantanove nel deserto e va dietro a quella perduta, finché non la ritrova?”.
La donna di casa ci potrebbe persino riportare a Marta di Betania, così attiva e pronta da non accorgersi della ricchezza che la sorella Maria aveva già trovato (Lc 10,40-41): “O quale donna, se ha dieci dramme e ne perde una, non accende la lucerna e spazza la casa e cerca attentamente finché non la ritrova?”.
Di tutt’altro genere è la figura del padre dei due figli. Quando, infatti, Gesù parla di paternità non ha tanto dei riferimenti umani ed esistenziali cui riferirsi, ma sembra attingere a un’esperienza deeper and more decisive. As if the powers of imagination gave way up to the reality itself of the Father and His relationship with Him as if the merciful face of God can not bear a more imaginative and allusive. Only the Son, in fact, can fully reveal the Father: "All things have been given to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him "(Mt 11:27).
Here is a passage that is worth mentioning. It is not so much our human experience of fatherhood that can descriptively refer to some features of the face of God, but the opposite is true. A father should act as described by Jesus in the parable does not deserve approval. It is not much on letting the minor child if they go home, taking away half inheritance, without even an excuse. Him back again, after he squandered it all. Without the slightest reproach. Here we are asked quite a leap in the heart of Jesus, accepting what we are saying just like the word 'God'. As we were saying his God, his own paternity. Perhaps Jesus was merely commenting on a famous passage from the Book of Exodus - the rest again later criticized by the prophet Jonah 4.2 - in which God himself, speaking to Moses, said to be "Lord! The Lord! God the merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth "(Exodus 34:6).
To better understand the unique features of this mercy, so there are some verbal actions to help returning on time for all three stories heard. The first
existential experience that introduces us to understand God's mercy is that of loss: a sheep that is lost in the bush, a drama that ends somewhere below that of furniture, a child who leaves the family home, even slamming the door . If not we practice to share the experience of existential confusion, there is a real risk that the mercy of God may be confused with a naive gooders and, therefore, inevitably rejected. In this sense, Jesus, speaking of the sinful woman in Simon the Pharisee, he sees her own in a particular susceptibility to this mercy, saying, "Her many sins are forgiven, for she loved much, but one to whom little is forgiven, loves little "(Lk 7:47).
The second is the search for verbal action with a vengeance that God alone knows how to put in place in relation not only to man generally, but specifically to the sinner. Maybe it will be increasingly difficult to determine the reasons for the loss. But the fact remains that the pastor will not rest until I find a lamb, like the woman her money and how this father who will never cease to stand to wait until just the outline of the son's horizon. But
decisive in order to seize the mercy of God by the party itself, it is the last action. In fact, if it is God who seeks us out, then surely he'll end up, feeling a joy unspeakable. Like the shepherd who "goes home, call together his friends and neighbors, saying: Rejoice with me because I have found my sheep which was lost", or the woman who, "after finding it, call her friends and neighbors, saying: Rejoice with me, I have found the coin I lost. " The merciful father, took by an overwhelming joy, if it is said to have been very well understood by the youngest son, the prodigal son will be understood by even more, which say that "we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come in life was lost and is found ".
May the joy that we all experience, taking part in Sunday, is increasingly rooted in the joy that God himself try to see us at the table with his son.
What is a good Sunday for all.
Don Walter Magni
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