Staying Home

In the parable of the two sons, the son who stayed home, thinking that he was playing the game properly and by the rules, was as silly as the one who left home and wasted his portion of the estate in lavish and insanely generous (“prodigal”) lifestyle. The homebound brother complained when his father killed the best animal on the farm to throw a party for the traveler. He declared that his father had never given him even a goat to have a party with his friends.

Somehow, he missed his father’s division of all his estate between the two sons (Luke 15:12). Everything left on the farm was his, but he had not taken any of the owner’s responsibility over it. He did not consider it to be true that his father had given him everything. Because he belonged to his father, the half of his father’s estate that was not carried off in the hands of his brother was his. He owned all the goats.

Imagine that this isn’t “The Parable of the Prodigal,” but “The Parable of the Two Sons.” Imagine that some younger saint is asking you, “What does our Father want us to learn from the part of the story that is about the son who stayed home?” What is the right answer?

What resources has our Father given us that we are pretending aren’t really ours, while we complain about something He hasn’t done for us?