Vigils Reading – 4th Sunday of Lent

A FATHER

AND NOT A JUDGE

From a commentary by St John Chrysostom

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All that God looks for from us is the slightest opening, and he forgives a

multitude of sins. Let me tell you a parable that will confirm this.

There were two brothers: they divided their father’s goods between them,

and one stayed home, while the other went away to a foreign country, wasted all

he had been given, and then could not bear the shame of his poverty. Now the

reason I have told you this parable is so that you will understand that even sins

committed after baptism can be forgiven if we face up to them. I do not say this

to encourage indolence but to save you from despair, which harms us worse

than indolence.

The son who went away represents those who fall after baptism. This is

clear from the fact that he is called a son, since no one is called a son unless he is

baptized. Also, he lived in his father’s house and took a share of all his father’s

goods. Before baptism no one receives the father’s goods or enters upon the

inheritance. We can therefore take all this as signifying the state of believers.

Furthermore, the wastrel was a brother of the good man, and no one is a brother

unless he has been born again through the Spirit.

What does he say after falling into the depths of evil? I will return to my

father. The reason the father let him go and did not prevent his departure for a

foreign land was so that he might learn well by experience what good things are

enjoyed by the one who remains at home. But when words would not convince

us God often leaves us to learn from the things that happen to us.

When the profligate returned after going to a foreign country and finding

out by experience what a great sin it is to leave the father’s house, the father did

not remember past injuries but welcomed him with open arms. Why? Because

he was a father and not a judge. And there were dances and festivities and

banquets and the whole house was full of joy and gladness.

Are you asking: “Is this what he gets for his wickedness?” Not for his

wickedness, but for his return home; not for his sin but for repentance’ not for

evil, but for being converted. What is more, when the elder son was angry at this,

the father gently won him over, saying You were always with me, but he was

lost and has been found; he was dead and has come back to life. When someone

who was lost has to be saved”, says the father, “it is not the time for passing

judgment or making minute inquiries, but only for mercy and forgiveness.”