The 15th Chapter of Luke’s Gospel has been called “the chapter of lost things,” as it contains the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son, which we hear today in the parable of the Prodigal Son. All these lost things are found in the end. Thus, these are parables of hope. The give hope to the sinner, to those who feel lost or forsaken.
Saint Augustine famously wrote: "There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future." The story of Prodigal Son is about the sinner who becomes a saint, the lost man who was found. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who feel that the road to holiness is unrealistic or unattainable. Think of the Prodigal Son at his lowest point, having lost everything, yearning to get into the mud with the pigs to eat their food to alleviate his hunger. At that point, he is unable to see the height of holiness and the glory to which God can bring him. Unfortunately, when we human beings are at our lowest point, we can see God as an obstacle we need to overcome on our journey through life, we can our faith as an enemy. Too many people in the modern world see religion as a bad thing, as a barrier on their spiritual journey. It is interesting to note that Jesus addresses the parable of the Prodigal Son to not only the tax collectors and sinners who are gathering around him to hear what he has to say, but also to the scribes and the Pharisees who are criticizing him. All of them have something to learn from this parable.
The Prodigal Son can be seen as a parable that encapsulates the essence of our Christian life and the mercy of God. This parable tells the universal truth about God’s redemption and forgiveness in the midst of our human brokenness. We may wander away from God’s love and mercy, but he pursues us even in our darkest hour, even in those dark places where we try to hide.
When I first moved to Mississippi, I became immersed in the wonderful literature written by novelist from our state: Walker Percy, Eudora Welty, and William Faulkner. I also became more familiar with Flannery O’Connor, another acclaimed author from the South, who is the member of the community of saints I have chosen to highlight today. Born in 1925, she died at the age of 39 in 1964 from lupus, the same disease that claimed the life of her father. She spent most of her life in Savannah and Milledgeville in the state of Georgia, formed by her devout Catholic faith and Southern Irish-Catholic heritage. After attending the prestigious writer’s workshop at the University of Iowa, she applied her writing skill in essays, novels, and short stories. Throughout her adult life, she attended daily Mass and went to confession frequently. She reflected upon her Catholic faith in her writing in her prayer journal: “(Lord), please let Christian principles permeate my writing and please let there be enough of my writing (published) for Christian principles to permeate. I dread, O Lord, losing my faith.”
If you have ever read O’Connor’s short stories or novels, you will find very flawed characters who struggle with the realities of life and with their humanity. But even more than 60 years after her death, her writing style and the content of her work is still fresh and insightful. She once stated that her Catholic sacramental view of life is what fundamentally shaped her writing. She saw God working in often mysterious and disruptive ways in our lives in order to bring his prodigal children back to him in unexpected and shocking moments of grace. O’Connor stated that many people see her stories as hard, hopeless, and brutal. Yet, she saw her stories about being about the action of God’s grace on a character who is often not willing to support that grace.
That is why I see Flannery O’Connor and her writing connect to the story of the Prodigal Son. We live in a world today where we want everything to be easy to define and to be politically correct. That does not fit the writings of Flannery O’Connor, so in recent years her work and her life has been a bit controversial. I have been reading two volumes of her short stories recently, as she is considered one of the most accomplished short story writers in American literature. Like the story of the Prodigal Son in the Gospel today, we are all called to holiness and salvation through Christ in the messy reality of our lives, in the midst of the mistakes we make and in our repentance from our sins. I am thankful for writers like Flannery O’Connor who invite us into the messy reality of our human condition and help us reflect upon that reality as disciples of Christ.
