Weekly HOMILY for March 14: Colors of the Prodigal

4th Sunday of Lent, Cycle C
Our Lady of Grace
March 14, 2010

The Colors of the Prodigal Son
By Nicholas P. Amato


The Parable of the Prodigal Son

Today’s Gospel is one of the most beloved stories in all of Scripture. (1st slide of women looking at painting)

It is Jesus’ parable of the self-absorbed teenager who demands his inheritance from his loving father, squanders every cent on the good life, and is reduced to tendig pigs when the money runs out.

Once he realizes how foolish he has been, he is welcomed home by his thankful dad, no questions asked.

Many have imagined their own versions of the story, but perhaps the most insightful has been one artist’s interpretation on canvas.


Rembrandt’s Father, Son, and Older Brother

In 1669, the Dutch master Rembrandt pained “The Return of the Prodigal Son.”

It was one of his last works and Rembrandt’s painting portrays the father welcoming home his son.

The details of the painting are very revealing and touch our very souls.

First, there is the father. (2nd picture, of close-up of the father, son and man in black hat) Rembrandt portrays the old man as the very picture of serenity. His face reflects tranquility and peace.

He also appears to be blind; he sees his son, whose head he tenderly holds, not with his eyes but with his heart.

Many have also noted the father’s hands: his left hand, the hand that pulls his son toward him, has the strength and power of a father.

And notice the right hand; it is caressing his son’s back, and has the softness and tenderness of a mother.

In Rembrandt’s portrayal, the old father mirrors the compassion of God, who loves us in the depth of our hearts, who is both mother and father to every one of us prodigals.


The figure of the prodigal, who collapses before his father, is emaciated and exhausted.

His head is shaved; he is dirty and scarred; he wears only a dirty, ragged tunic and one torn sandal on his right foot.

All defiance has been stropped away. The son is a picture of humility. His realization? That he has wasted his life enable him to make the long, hard trek home to his father’s welcoming embrace.


Finally, there is the older brother (3rd photo of five characters in shadowy colors) in the shadows of the painting. He is angry and bitter. Notice, he looks at the scene with scorn and distrust.

He knows that his younger brother’s return is going to be a hard readjustment for all of them.

His bitterness and anger confines him to the darkness, outside of the light and color of his father’s joy and his brother’s gratitude.


Application

Rembrandt’s beautiful painting (4th photo, a brighter scene of the previous slide) invites all of us to see ourselves in each of the characters.

To see ourselves in the father’s joy at having his boy back.

To see ourselves in the Prodigal’s facing responsibility for the hurt he has caused.

To see ourselves in the older brother’s understandable, but divisive resentment and distrust.

The work of forgiveness demands facing our culpability, our blame for having hurt others.

At its center (5th photo, a more golden hue added to the previous slide) forgiveness requires that we be willing to put aside our own hurts and resentments for the ultimate goal of being reunited with those from whom we are separated.

It calls for the balancing within my very heart a willingness to forgive and an openness to be converted by God’s grace, both of which lead to true reconciliation.


Conclusion

May Rembrandt’s colors of forgiveness and gratitude illuminate our relationship and all the struggles we all experience in being family and friends to one another.

6th photo, of the two women before the painting) Is it more than a painting on a wall in a museum? Or is it more a mirror of the forgiveness I can experience in my own life?