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Background: This poor man lucked out with neither of his sons. He loved them
both and they both were goofs. The first was too wild, the second was too rigid and nasty.
Neither one appreciated their father's love. Both tried to exploit him. What's more he
knew they were exploiting him. This is not a story of a prodigal son, but of an indulgent
father, indeed of a hyper-indulgent father. Note that he runs to meet the first son and
cuts off his phony speech. Note
too that he is incredibly patient with the mean-spirited and ungrateful second son. This
story is not supposed to provide a model for family life. Rather it tells us that God
loves us like the indulgent father, so much that by human standards, he's quite over the
top. |
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Story: Once there were two teenagers
whose parents went away for the weekend. As
some teenagers do, they decided they would have a party. You know the rest. A
couple hundred people showed up. They drank all the family liquor, trashed
the house, tore up the garden, wrecked the family cars, burned down the
garage, smashed the windows in the neighboring homes, rioted when the police
came, and even threw beer cans on the rectory lawn (Really!). When the
parents came home to find the national guard patrolling their streets, they
said to their children, "You shouldn't have done that." Why not, said the
kids. You went away it's your fault, not ours. You should have never trusted
us. But the parents love their children so much that they weren't angry at
them. That's the way God loves us.
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