Beloved in Christ, today we hear the great parable that the Holy Fathers gave us to read on this Sunday of the Prodigal Son. The Lord speaks of two sons — one who leaves, one who stays — and a Father who runs to meet whoever turns toward Him.
The younger son did three things we ourselves do every day: he asked for what was not yet his, he wasted it on what cannot satisfy, and he sat among the husks. The husks of a far country are not bread. We know this hunger.
But consider the Father. He did not send servants. He did not wait at the gate. He saw the son when he was yet a great way off, and He ran. This is the Gospel. Not that we deserve return — that we are awaited.
Let us, in these days of preparation, return.