I hope you’ll bear with me here for a moment. It’s been an entire week now and I still have last Sunday’s (9/12) Gospel reading on my mind, but I’m only just now getting around to commenting on it.

Several years ago I read Fr. Henri Nouwen’s book The Return of the Prodigal Son, reflecting on Rembrant’s famous rendition of the parable on canvas (pictured right). Through most of the book, Nouwen focuses on the many ways each of us can naturally relate to both of the sons in the parable and how we should learn from their relationships with the Father, who represents God for us.

That commentary alone is worth the price of the book. It’s quite moving, insightful and often very challenging. But then he offers an even more poignant conclusion that never even crossed my mind, nor had I ever heard before, in all the years I’ve read, heard or reflected on this parable:

“Rembrant’s painting and his own tragic life have offered me a context in which to discover that the final stage of the spiritual life is to so fully let go of all fear of the Father that is becomes possible to become like him. As long as the Father evokes fear, he remains an outsider and cannot dwell within me. But Rembrant, who showed me the Father in utmost vulnerability, made me come to the awareness that my final vocation is indeed to become like the Father and to live out his divine compassion in my daily life. Though I am both the younger son and the elder son, I am not to remain them, but to become the Father. No father or mother ever became father or mother without having been son or daughter, but every son and daughter has to consciously choose to step beyond their childhood and become father and mother for others. It is a hard and lonely step to take – especially in a period of history in which parenthood is so hard to live well – but it is a step that is essential for the fulfillment of the spiritual journey. (p.121)

The return to the Father, Nouwen goes on to say, is ultimately a challenge to become the Father. This is the very heart of the Gospel message: “be merciful just as your Father is merciful” (Lk. 6:36) and exactly what the Father of the parable tells his eldest son when he says: ‘My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.'”

Now, if you’re like me, the thought that may come to your mind: “become the Father? Aren’t we supposed to approach the kingdom of heaven as “little children”? But, again, if you’re like me, you will soon recall, for example, that while St. Therese, who literally wrote the book on “spiritual childhood,” certainly approached Our Lord with the humility of a little child, she was also a great spiritual mother – to the novices under her care and several missionary priests with whom she corresponded. Like the Father, she did not deny her love to any human being, even sometimes going out of her way to make acts of charity towards those who caused her much distress and once committing herself to praying and offering up sacrifices for the conversion of a man sentenced to death for the brutal murder of two women and a child.

Yes, we are children, but also heirs to our Father’s Kingdom (Rom. 8:17) and, as such, are called to “put away childish things” (1 Corinth. 13:11) and grow and become compassionate as our heavenly Father is (Nouwen).

Jesus, in Whom the fullness of God dwells, is our perfect example of this divine sonship:

“Amen, amen, I say to you, a son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees his father doing; for what he does, his son will do also For the Father loves his Son and shows him everything that he himself does, and he will show him greater works than these, so that you may be amazed. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes. Nor does the Father judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to his Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. (John 5:19-23)

He is the younger son without being rebellious. He is the elder son without being resentful. In everything he is obedient to the Father, but never his slave…

Jesus, the Beloved of the Father, leaves his Father’s home to take on the sins of God’s wayward children and bring them home. But, while leaving, he stays close to the Father and through total obedience offers healing to his resentful brothers and sisters. (Return of the Prodigal Son p. 126, 127)

Learning to become the Father, to realize that “the God who loves you unconditionally loves all of your fellow human beings” without exception (Nouwen) and calls us all to that same love is the key to building a true culture of life. Peace in the womb, peace in the world, begins with peace in our own hearts.