“While he was still a long distance away, his father saw him and felt compassion. He ran to meet him, embraced him and covered him with kisses.” Lk 15:20
Lent is a time of return, an invitation to introspection in order to recognize our fragility and our need of God’s love, which transforms us. This Sunday’s Gospel shows us that the Father’s mercy precedes us: he doesn’t wait passively for us to return, but, moved by compassion, he runs to meet us, welcomes us and restores us.
The youngest son, in asking for his inheritance and leaving, was seeking a freedom that took him away from what was essential: his relationship with the Father. His search for autonomy led him to loneliness, misery and a loss of meaning. However, when he reached the rock bottom, he remembered not only his father’s house, but the dignity he had there. This movement of remembering and recognizing is the first step in conversion: realizing that, far from the Father, our life loses its shine and we need to return.
But the return doesn’t happen alone. The Father doesn’t just wait; he sees from a distance, runs to meet his son, embraces him and restores him. Venerable Father Jean Gailhac teaches us: “Sin is the tomb. Whoever is a slave to sin is in the tomb. Bad habits are also a tomb.” (GS/26/III/77/A*). The prodigal son experienced this inner death, marked by separation from God and by choosing a path of disorder and loneliness. But when he returns, he meets a Father who does not seek to punish or humiliate him, but to restore him to his dignity as a son. The Father does not want servants, but living sons. The resurrection he offers is a true transformation. The ring on his finger, the new tunic and the sandals on his feet are clear signs of this new life. The son doesn’t just return home; he is reborn in a love that heals and restores. As Father Gailhac says: “ To love is to be resurrected and to be resurrected is to love.” (GS/26/III/77/A*). This is the experience of new life in Christ, where God’s mercy not only forgives us, but makes us reborn, giving us back the vigor of true life: a life of love, communion and freedom.
The parable also takes us into the heart of the eldest son. Although he never physically left, he was distant in his way of thinking. He served the Father, but didn’t understand his love. He felt unjustly treated when he saw his brother welcomed with celebration. His complaint reflects a hardened heart that measures love with weights and measures, forgetting that God’s love is not based on merit, but on pure grace.
And where do we find ourselves in this story? Are we the ones who leave and need to come back? Are we those who judge and need to learn to welcome? Or are we called to be like the Father, ready to run to meet those who return?
Lent challenges us to come out of our own graves, to abandon the habits that imprison us and to awaken to a renewed life. Father Gailhac continually insisted on this thought: “The time has come for us to come out of the sleep of death. Jesus Christ is risen. Let us come out of the tomb of sin, let us strip ourselves of bad habits, let us abandon our tepid, careless life and let us rise with Jesus Christ, let us sing the cry of victory, the cry of life.” (GS/26/III/77/A*). Recognizing our mistakes is only the first step. The true path of conversion requires concrete action, where God’s love transforms us from the inside out, making us truly new.
In this time of Lent, may we rediscover the joy of being beloved children and the grace of being brothers and sisters. And, as Father Gailhac teaches us, may we “Love to come out of the tomb and come out of the tomb to love.” (GS/26/III/77/A*). True resurrection happens when we choose to live this transforming love, which takes us out of death and leads us to full life.
Sr. Daniela Santos
