24Th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Luke 15,1-32)
Who has not heard or read more than once the Parable of the Prodigal Son? For many it is one of the nuclear passages of the Gospel, where it condenses so beautiful the proclamation of the Jesus of mercy without fissures of God at the mediocrity of the human being. But it could also be the “Gospel of the Family” par excellence. Because, in the end of it all, it tells the story of a family that is unfortunately not too strange: quarrels between brothers, differences between parents and children, even problems “of inheritance”, processes of reconciliation… Even – although possibly the parable does not want to cover both- it could also call attention to the absence of the “mother” in this family that is put before us as an example. Because, if God appears with Mother-Father traits at the same time- and if that “absence” is to remind us that when the “mother” is missing, the motherly, tender, compassionate… -be it in the parents, spouses, children, siblings, grandparents, brothers-in-law, the aunts and uncles… or any other persons who have been part of our families- family relationships are going to derail.
Proposal to take care of the family this week:
Dialogue within the family as to how we could imitate more the “maternity/paternity” of God, particularly with those that we hold at a distance
PS: And it is probably a good occasion to read or reread the famous book “The Return of the Prodigal Son” by Henri Nouwen, which has done much good for a lot of people!
Alicia del Pozo and Francisco Bonachera
