Mòrar’s Musings: Why we all need the Prodigal Son
What does the Prodigal Son have to do with the Oscars? (Luke 15:11–32)
Best picture in 2016 was ‘Spotlight,’ the story of the revelation of the abuse of children by priests in Boston. Reporters shone a spotlight on the sinful behaviour of 10% of the clergy in the diocese of Boston.
The Oscar best picture win of Spotlight over contenders which all seemed filled with violence held a certain irony for me. After all, ‘Spotlight’ uncovered violence perpetrated by priests over thousands of children -- so it’s a film about the worst violence of all the contenders.
What started as a story about one priest changed into 700 articles that sought to answer questions like:
Why did it happen?
Why didn’t the bishop act?
Why were poor families targeted?
Why was there no repentance for so long?
The connection between this story and the story of a son who took his inheritance and squandered it on sinful living is that there isn’t one. No priest or bishop acted like the Prodigal Son. Oh, they did sin. The prodigal son broke cleanliness laws when he took care of pigs, and probably did worse before that. And we know that priests sinned time after time, breaking the most precious of God’s laws. But no one repented like the Prodigal.
Why didn’t this story come to light earlier? The authority of the church conspired to keep secret case after case. When a new managing editor arrived from Florida, he noticed a small article buried in the Metro section of the paper about a priest molesting a young boy. He asked ‘why aren’t you reporting on this?’ They answered, ‘because all the documents are sealed.’ He said, “I don’t know the laws in Massachusetts, but in Florida, we would be working to get those documents unsealed.”
10,000 pages arrived at The Globe. There was not one mention of concern about the impact on a child’s life. Instead, the documents revealed how far institutions will go to protect themselves.
There was no prodigal son who came to his senses among the pigs and wanted to return to his father.
No one repented. Reporters focussed on the bishop, Cardinal Law, hoping that he might be the Prodigal Son who would take responsibility for the hundreds of priests who committed thousands of crimes over his tenure, for the many victims he had used church funds to pay off to keep quiet.
The Boston Globe published its first article in January of 2002. Cardinal Law had done good things over the years, but only resigned a year after the Globe published 700 stories about the cover up under pressure from many prominent Catholics and 58 of his own priests.
This is the story of a man who had done his share of good in life, but also a man who had actively protected priests who did ill.
The story of the Prodigal Son is so important. It’s the story of one person’s repentance, but in addition the story of each of us. The story of the Prodigal son should have been a prophetic call to Bishops and priests, to repent of their sins, to face the pigs in their lives, and to return to God.
But both the Prodigal Son story and the story that unfolds in Spotlight have one thing in common.
They are both stories of ultimate reconciliation. It’s messy, it has to be public. Stories have to be told, secrets revealed and authority questioned. Older sons have to grumble, Cardinals have to resign. Priests have to ask themselves how they colluded in covering up.
When we tell the story of the Prodigal Son, it seems simple. We don’t know all the facts. How the father and oldest son struggled with their wealth halved; what good and bad there was in the father, in the prodigal before.
We are all like Cardinal Law, with good acts and bad acts in our pasts. We are all like the Prodigal Son, wandering far away from God at times, recognizing our need to return home to the arms of a forgiving God. We are all like the older son, resenting the forgiveness bestowed so generously on others. We’re all a bit of a mess.
Jesus knows. This story captures sin, sibling rivalry, dissolute living, false martyrdom and lifts it all up in the love of a father who can only celebrate when one he has loved returns.
Paul writes, “Our firm decision is to work from this focused centre: Jesus died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. God included everyone in Christ’s death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.
Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with Jesus gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life emerges! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins.“ (2 Corinthians 5:selected verses from The Message)
God has offered us the possibility of being reconciled to God through Christ. Even when priests and bishops stop thinking of themselves as in need of forgiveness, we are reminded that being included ultimately gives us the freedom to live better lives.
When we share in Communion, we share in the feast that God offers the Prodigal, welcoming us back to the fold from wherever we have been wandering. Eating the bread and drinking from the cup is like tasting reconciliation. We will stumble on our journey toward reconciliation, but we know what it tastes like because Christ has offered us this meal.
Join the rest of the Prodigals at Erin Mills this Sunday for our Affirm Service and the feast we call Communion!
Blessings,
Mòrar
