The Sunday of the Prodigal Son – Father Gavril Galev
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This parable tells of a (good) father and two sons who lived on his property. One of them, the younger one, asked for “his” share of the property and then left for a foreign country, while the elder one stayed to work on his father’s property. The father in the parable represents the only Omnibenevolent God, and in the two sons we recognise all people. The first part of the parable talks about the younger son who left his father for a “distant country”, so when he found himself “in tribulation” he repented and returned to his father’s courtyard. The other part of the parable tells about the relationship of the elder son who stayed on his father’s property and did not break any of his commandments.
The first part of the parable of the prodigal son should be quite clear. However, the other part that talks about the elder son seems a little hidden and we don’t pay enough attention to it. It is true that the main theme of the story is about the prodigal son, but the part about the righteous son also needs to be given importance. For if we pay greater attention, we will see that both of them renounced their father in their own time. The difference is that one of them renounced their father, then repented and returned, the other stayed with his father all the time, but in the end he “was angry at him” and stayed out of the community of his father, his brother and all the relatives who participated in the table of the fattened calf, that is, he remained outside the Church and the Holy Eucharist.
If we analyse the actions of both of them well, we will see that they are similar, if not the same. The elder son also did the same things that the younger (prodigal) son did. In the beginning, the younger son asked for his share of his father’s property, and the elder son, in the end, became conceited and imagined himself to be the sole heir of his father’s property, that is, he appropriated it in some way. Basically, the property belongs to the father and the father will give it to whomever he wants and however he wants. It is the same with God’s grace, we cannot become judges of God and tell Him how to distribute it, because it is a gift from the Father.
The younger son, being deceived by “everything which is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the desire of the eyes and the pride of life” (1. John 2:16) could not live in his father’s house (in obedience) and intended to leave him. He thought that life with his father was akin to slavery and was unbearable. He shows unreasonableness and asks for what is not actually his, but he thinks it belongs to him, and after receiving “his” share of the property, he leaves his father. Furthermore, as if by some unwritten rule, the demon who always shows us a “better” picture of some “better” option, so that if we live in a “better time” or “better” circumstances, we will have a “better” life. But after we submit and surrender to him, then he shows his true face as a liar and man-hater, he will leave us and we will lose everything we have and then we will see the true picture of things. Then we will come to realisation that we were deluded and it was all just a lie, vanity and has nothing to do with reality.
Being overwhelmed by vanity and high opinion, we create a false image of ourselves. Having a darkened mind and deluded in ourselves, we begin to believe our proud thoughts and live selfishly, led by passions. Self-loving, self-convinced, vanity-loving and pleasure-loving, we spoil our lives by living prodigally and we end up naked, hungry, empty, exhausted, deceived and lonely. The goal of demons is to bring us to despair and destroy our souls, but in those moments it is wise to think of the goodness of God and return from where we have sinned, to where we belong, as this prodigal son did, in fact, as any reasonable person would do, when he realises his mistake.
After he became aware of his condition, of his fall, he did not ask for anything else, just to return to his father, whom he had hurt a lot. The father, on the other hand, mourned for his lost son and he was constantly waiting for his return. The father’s heart was bleeding, the father’s heart was constantly watching and praying for that prodigal son of his to return. His gaze was turned in the direction in which his son had gone and therefore he saw him first from afar.
So we should all know that our every disobedience is “leaving the parental home” and is equal to the actions of the prodigal son. Being trapped by self-love, we cannot see and feel that with every self-will and disobedience we inflict a wound on our spiritual father as well as on our physical parents. Their heart is bleeding and always the gaze of the parent’s heart is turned towards the child they have lost. Therefore, with our actions, we should never hurt our spiritual fathers, we should never offend our parents, no matter how difficult it is for us to live in their home in obedience. And it is from this that all our troubles and problems spring, that is why we will undergo suffering. Suffering, on the other hand, if properly accepted, makes us aware and sobers up our delusion and allows us to see our true state.
When the prodigal son returned, having spent all of his share of the livelihood through living wantonly (Lk. 15:13), the Father, being full of love, did not question him and did not reprimand him for what he spent it on, how he spent it, where he spent it, why he spent it, and did not ask him to pay back what he has lost, but he hugged him, kissed him, gave him a ring which means forgiveness and restores his dignity as a son. Because of his return, he also made him a feast, because this son of his was dead and came to life, he was lost and now found (Luke 15:24).
Let us turn now to what happens to the elder, righteous son, who, as he says about himself, fulfilled all the fathers, that is, God’s commandments.
Even though he stayed with his father, in essence he was actually never with him. If he had been with him, he would have shared his opinion according to the words: “all that is mine is yours” (Lk. 15:31). Although he stayed with his father and tried hard, he obviously did not do asceticism properly and did not carry out father’s commandments essentially and from a pure heart. For if he behaved as such, he would have been similar to his father and he would have the same thoughts, and his father’s will would have also been his will. So instead of being sad and angry, he would have rejoiced at the return of this brother of his, who was dead and came to life, was lost and now found (Luke 15:31, 32).
His relationship to his father was not filial, but more so as a hireling or slave. This can be seen from the words he said; “that he served him and that he did not give him a single kid in return.” (Lk. 15:29) He never built relationship as of a son with his father based on love and trust. His attitude was more based on fear, like a slave fearing punishment or a hireling who deserved his reward. Everything he did, he did it out of interest for some gain, so that his effort would be reimbursed.
Also, his attitude towards his brother was erroneous. Although he was indeed a sinner, he is still his brother and should love him and mourn his fall (this applies to all of us as well). If you notice he really didn’t care about his brother. He simply wrote off his brother as a brother, wrote him off from the family and selfishly considered himself the sole heir to the inheritance of his father’s estate. Being overwhelmed by the passion of self-love and covetousness, he closed his heart, so when his brother appeared, instead of being happy, he was filled with anger and rage. His mind darkened and his heart closed with envy and jealousy towards his brother, because that same brother, their father, had again accepted him as his son and re-established their personal relationship and with whom he would now have to share the father’s property. By doing so, he shows disrespect and renounces his father, and then his brother does not recognise him as a brother, for whom he does not say “my brother”, but “your son”, thereby accusing his father as well (Lk. 15: 30).
He felt so humiliated that he did not go in person, but sent his servant to his father, thus showing that he had not really established a personal relationship with his father.
This is the most important thing. To build a personal and loving relationship with our God.
Not just to fulfil God’s commandments and live according to the law, without having a personal loving relationship with our God, expressed first of all through a personal relationship with our spiritual father and with our brothers and sisters around us. Here is the biggest mistake of those who call themselves righteous and fulfil God’s commandments, and this must be corrected.
But see how the father acts again? Without an iota of pride and vanity in himself, filled with immense love and humility, he humbled himself and again as a father he first personally, and not through the servant, went to the other son to beg him and invited him to enter the feast for his brother. He left the feast to save the other son who at that moment fell away and renounced him, who himself was not aware that by doing so he was hurting his parent and renouncing both his sonship and his inheritance.
When children insult each other, hurt each other, do not love each other, when they divide among themselves, considering that they have a monopoly over the father, that is but a knife in the heart of their spiritual father, it is a knife in the heart of their parent, who again because is loving, he will not pay back with punishment, but will pay back with sacrifice and personal suffering, while not telling about his wound, that he is suffering.
That is why God’s greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God first and foremost, with all our strength, with all our heart, with all our nous, and, our neighbour as ourselves. Then we will have true union, then we will have true peace, then love will reign, then God will be in our midst, because where two or three gather together in the name of God, there also is God amongst them and there also is the grace of God. Everything else is delusion, everything else is vanity, everything else is destruction, and everything else is to our detriment. Let us never renounce God, let us not exalt ourselves, let us not divide, let us not seek our own, let us not argue, let us not humiliate each other, let us not judge each other, let us not gossip, but let us love each other.
May the Lord Jesus Christ, through the prayers of the Holy Fathers, grant us to fulfil this, the greatest commandment of His. Amen.
Father Gavril Galev
Abbot of the Monastery “Saint Clement of Ohrid”
Kinglake Melbourne, Australia
03 / 03 / 2024
