Coming Home

Coming Home 

We usually think of the parable of the Prodigal Son as a parable about God’s mercy – and it definitely is that.  Luke identifies that as Jesus’ motive for telling the parable:

“…the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

But the parable of the Prodigal Son can also be seen as a story of discernment.  After the famine strikes, and the younger son finds himself in need and resorts to feeding pigs in the far off country, we hear:

“But when he came to himself”

This is a grace filled moment.  Somehow, despite all that had happened and “hitting rock bottom” – the younger son remembers for a moment who he really is – and although his idea of what how things will unfold is mistaken – he has a definite direction to go in, and is able to reach home.

It’s often said in vocation discernment, having a sense of “coming home” is something we should look for.  But in a world where many people are on the move, and choose or are unable to stay in one place or at one job for very long, it raises the question of whether a sense of “home” can be found anymore.    

But if we look at the experience of the younger son, before he “came home” to his father’s house, he first “came home” within himself.  It was this realization that gave the younger son the motivation, and identified the path by which he eventually did come home to a welcome beyond anything he could have imagined.

Discerning God’s will for our lives, or our vocation is in a real sense a “coming home” – but not to one or another particular set of circumstances, however they may “check off” off our boxes.  It is more like the realization that the younger son had, which he didn’t fully understand, but pursued, and in the end, was able to come home.