Meditations On The Gospel Of Luke For The FamilySample

"MEDITATION 14: Two Sons, Two Men Praying in the Temple"

Before we approach our texts, it would be helpful to have in mind the two parables that precede that of the “Lost Son.” The images of the sheep gone astray and the lost coin offer us a faint idea of the joy a father would experience when recovering a son who was considered dead. Nor should we forget that Jesus is speaking to a particular group of people, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, proud and self-sufficient, who criticized Jesus for “welcoming and eating” with sinners and outcasts, and despised those they deemed non- observant.
There was a man who had two sons, both of whom were estranged from him. One dared to break the bonds of family life, going off to a “distant country” and squandering the inheritance he had requested from his father.
When a famine came, out of desperation (hunger was stronger than pride), he decided to return home to be accepted, not as a son but as a “hired worker.” The other son had stayed at home, obeying the father’s orders and “working as a slave” (literally in Greek!). He was physically in his father’s house, but emotionally far from him. The climax of the story reveals the sad reality of human nature represented by the lack of true love each of the brothers feels toward his father. The younger one, who was welcomed as a son, does not even say “thanks.” As for the older son, his feelings are a mixture of anger and resentment. He considers his brother an alien (“your son” not “my brother,” he
says), and the parable does not tell us if he eventually was reconciled and joined the feast. High above the squalid reaction of the brothers, the magnanimity and compassion of the father soars as a light that brings hope to that darkness.
In the case of the two men who go up to pray in the Temple, we find two extreme examples of attitudes about life expressed in their prayers. We often misunderstand what Pharisees were when we think of them as mere enemies of Jesus, hypocrites and intolerant. In fact, they were extremely observant of the Law. Nor do we understand the negative opinion people had of tax collectors, who were considered public sinners, collaborators with the occupying Romans, and “legally impure.” Both men expect to be justified, and the results of their prayers are not what any reader would expect. The Pharisee relies on his own righteousness and boasts about it. He does not pray to ask for something from God, but despises the tax-collector who, in turn, relies only on God and prays, “Be merciful to me sinner.” /…
No further remarks on the texts, but a simple question: with which of the characters in each of the parables do we identify? This could be a touchstone to discover how far we are from their real message: the God announced by Jesus, his Father, is a God of mercy and forgiveness.

Rev. Fr. Mariano Perrón, Roman Catholic priest, Archdiocese of Madrid, Spain