On the Prodigal Son 627

Recently the great and godlike … of the Savior … mixed a bowl of divine wisdom and … all the people, or rather, so to speak, the whole inhabited earth … “of the fatness of your house, and you will give them to drink of the torrent of your delight.” When the divine Scripture speaks of drunkenness, it does not mean wine that intoxicates, but a word that makes wise. The fruit of repentance followed upon the coming of the Savior; for it was fitting that the fruits of repentance should follow upon the … That is why yesterday our sermon was exercised on this subject; falling far short of the dignity of the matters before us, yet not abandoning its own power, it moved on repentance, … is the medicine of salvation; and he was proclaimed the physician of souls and bodies, healing not with medicine but by the spirit of love for humankind. But since the reading of the Gospel ran past our minds while we were distracted this way and that, it is necessary today to go through it briefly with you and then to end the sermon. The Savior, who lays down godliness by word, by parables, by riddles, and introduces what is profitable for the faithful by various manners of teaching, … a certain parable, which has a powerful image of repentance. “A certain man,” he says, “had two sons, of whom the younger came and asked his father to divide the property between them.” He obtained what he asked, and taking his father’s property he managed it badly. Now you know the story; but it is worth bringing in its meaning here. For even if the many can understand it in various ways, the truth makes itself clear to those who are well disposed. What, then, does the fountain of wisdom set before us here? The first order, of the righteous, and the second order, of those justified through repentance: the one practising righteousness from the beginning, the other from … “had two sons.” Even if their choice divided them, the ungodly from the godly, the truth knows all of them as one creature of the Maker; and all are sons of God, even if by their mind they cut themselves off from their own dignity. Hence God, if we depart from godliness through wicked desires, does not himself deny the kinship, but even to those who throw off the reins he utters a father’s voice: “Turn to me, sons … , and I will turn to you.” Do you see that, even if the mind of the sinner has departed, God does not disdain to call those who have departed sons? For he knows his own handiwork, and does not deny his own benefaction. Why, then, did the younger son use badly what was given? What is set before us is a riddle; hear how. From the beginning there was righteousness, and it appeared and shone forth; but sin was brought into the world as something younger and recent. That is why the first son is not placed in the position of the one who spent badly. For the ancient creation had its seemliness complete, when the world was new, shining with new grace, new seemliness. Moses bears witness to the beauty of creation, saying, “And all things were” not simply good, but “very good.” So righteousness came first, and the good is most ancient; but sin was younger; for it came in upon righteousness and defiled its seemliness. “He divided his property between them” equally. Why equally? Because the righteous have nothing more in the present life, since “he makes his sun rise on the righteous and the unrighteous, and sends rain on the good and the wicked.” But the one portrayed in the place of the righteous did not wish to divide his father’s inheritance, but remained under the father’s authority. For the righteous man always follows God and snatches nothing for his own control. Do you want to learn that the righteous man wishes to take nothing from God, but keeps in line only with the dispensation and providence of the same Father? David cries out from the order of the righteous: “For what have I in heaven? And besides you what have I desired on earth?” Do you see that the order of the righteous does not wish to snatch to itself control over the creatures, but wishes the affairs of the dispensation to lie under the Father’s providence? But the younger son, taking his father’s property, “went abroad into a far country”—not separated by places but cut off by ways of life. For the sinner, brothers, is far from God, not in place but in way of life, as it is said: “Behold, those who put themselves far from you shall perish.” Taking his father’s property, he “scattered it, living prodigally” in it. He received the sun for enjoyment, and worshipped the gift as a god; he received springs for delight, and thought the gift a god; the giver was unknown, and the gifts were honored, as Paul complains: … “to the creature rather than the creator.” The same creation, the same father’s property: and one used it well, the other badly. This order and that: well, and the opposite. The godly man sees the beauty of heaven, and from the beauty perceives the author of its being: “For I will see,” he says, “the heavens, the works of your fingers.” He saw the beauty, and gave thanks to the one who made such beauty; he saw the world, and praised the one who adorned it. For the godly man praises the creation but worships the creator; … they do not insult the creation, but render the honor to the Master. The believer does not hate the sun because he does not worship the light along with the ungodly; but he sets a measure to the honor, and … and loves the things that appear as gifts of God. Do you want to see how the godly man sees and admires the beauty, and reserves worship for the Creator? One of the wise—I mean the wise according to godliness—says: “The sun, shining in the heights of the Lord, a marvelous vessel, a mighty work, blowing out fiery vapors, shining over the heaven.” And what immediately? “Great is the Lord who made it.” He both proclaimed the beauty and did not hide the craftsman. But the ungodly man saw badly the heavens declaring the glory of God, not in words but by the beauty of the creation; for heaven never broke into a voice, but by its seemliness it sends forth a testimony more effective than a voice. And does heaven, though silent, declare the glory of God? Certainly. Your letters speak though silent, and do the elements of God not speak though silent? For you have received the taste of godliness; from the taste receive the whole of the truth. Examine the part of the ungodly man: how he stumbles at the very things by which the godly man is justified. He sees the moon and worships; he sees the stars and reveres them; he sees the sea and makes it a god. Those in the furnace of Babylon, who went into it, with the saving and noble confession hymned God through his works, saying, “All you works of the Lord, bless the Lord.” It would have been enough to say this … and to stop the hymn. For God rests not on the length of hymns but on the intention of those who sing them. By saying, then, “All you works,” everything was included, and there was no need of any other addition. But since they were proclaiming not for themselves, but were hymning God and through the hymn instructing the Chaldeans who stood by, the hymn necessarily travels through the whole creation, so that the erring Chaldeans might learn what is hymned and what the things are that hymn. But since our sermon has thrown us into a long contemplation, let us leave that for a time and return to what is before us. The younger son went abroad into a … country, spent his property badly, and began to be in want … but “those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.” For the Lord “will not withhold good things from those who walk in innocence.” “He began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to one of the rulers of that country.” See how great the height of his ancient nobility, how great the lowliness … to feed swine, that is, to wallow in pleasures and sins; for what mud is to swine, sin is to those who wallow in it. That is why the Lord, hinting at those who live in uncleanness and wallow in sins like mud, said: “Do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine.” He fed swine. “And he longed to fill himself with the pods that the swine ate; and no one gave him anything.” Pay careful attention here. The one who cuts himself off from godliness does not even have the enjoyment of the pleasures themselves, but is subjected to want and condemned to poverty, so that he does not even have abundance of the evils he chose. “For the fool,” it says, “will die in want.” He compares, then, the pleasures in the world to pods; for the pod has much roughness but little