The Elder So

“Now the elder son was out in the fields and on his way back, as he drew near the house, he could hear music and dancing,”
The reunion is complicated, the father moves to embrace his younger son and the elder son looks
on. One could say that he was the main observer.  He looks at his
father not with joy, nor does he embrace his younger brother, he wants to have
nothing to do with the return of his young brother. 
The elder son keeps his distant; he is not going to be involved in this
mess.  In the portrait by Rembrandt the elder son keeps his hands to himself and has a long face. Which could be
interpreted as saying? “I told you so…”  In the portrait the father runs to embrace his son whilst the elder son
stands and is divorced from the whole exercise.  He is cold towards his young brother.
Of course who can blame him? It was the young son that began this debacle of
demanding his inheritance.  The elder son had stayed and had been a dutiful son and now because of this
commitment to the family and his father he is being constricted. 
His probably sees his sense of duty as a jail sentence for this has held
him back.  Often we can be jealous of new converts to the faith. For these bring a new perspective, a different
direction, it is like opening a window and getting the breath of fresh air.  We have the attitude which says who is
he to tell us how to pray; after all we have been Christians much longer than he
has been. Our anger, envy and jealous show us that we are indeed in bondage we
are slaves and we are not free.  Often when we judgmental, full of condemnation, anger, resentment,
bitterness we are behaving like the elder son.  As much as the young son was lost we
too are lost when we store up feelings of destruction, we too are in the distant
country, as much as we have stayed at home. The Achilles heel for the elder son
was that in the public eye he was blameless, a model son, and one every father
wants his daughter to marry.  Unfortunately inside he was bitter and angry, and often we do not see
these things. These are the cancers that destroy our lives inwardly and keep us firmly in the distant country.  In the church among those called the  righteous are people held in bondage by resentment, prejudice and an unforgiving
spirit. These prevent us from being free, spontaneous and open to the Holy Spirit. 
Fr. Barnabas Nqindi

“He squandered his money on a life of debauchery. When he had spent it all, that country
experienced a severe famine…”
The young man
who had been blessed by his father returned home, as a wretched poor man. All
the money had been squandered on lots of parties and false friends. 
When we look at the picture of the younger son, his clothes are torn, his
shoes completely worn off and his hair shaven. He is in a pathetic state.  The picture of the young son kneeling
before his father is a far cry from the arrogant son who had demanded his
  inheritance.  The father’s clothes  reminder the son of what he left, status and dignity. His red cloak which the
  father wears shows that he is a man of means. The only thing we can observe from the
picture that gives the young man dignity and his roots is a short sword showing
his rank in society, for had lost all else. The sword is a sign of his son ship,
thank God in his desperation he did not sell it. The younger son shows a young
man who has been humiliated, defeated and was far worse than his father’s
servants.  When we leave God for the dizzy heights of the distant country we move away from his voice, we get
entangled by the world and the power games of the world. 
We became like the younger son, when we see other people’s progress we
envy them, when we try and please people, when we feel resentment and jealous,
then we have really gone to the distant country and have moved away from the
God’s voice and assuring love that says you are always the beloved. 
Another sign that shows that poverty has set in is when we worry that
other people will be jealous of our success.  We grow mistrustful of others and in
the process we lose our inner freedom. You know that you are lost and that you
are in the distant country when you seek the world to validate you and it
rejects you or ignores you. Another example of a sign of being in a distant
country is power play and power games which incidental show the depth of
spiritual poverty.(The mentality I am in  charge; instead of collaboration and growth in relationships) It means
that voice of God is no longer present in your life. One wants to hear other
voices instead of seeking the voice of God to be validated. Human beings can
never fully validate another without prejudice only God can do that, for we are
the beloved of the Lord.  Ultimately what pushes the younger son home is that the world does not
even consider him a person, hence he feeds with the pigs. He comes to his senses
and says; even my father servants are better fed. 
He remembered that whatever he had done, he was still his father’s son
and he returns home. We too can take courage in the fact that through our
baptism we are always going to be God’s children and the door is always open for
us to return home. Ours is to recognise that we need to repent and to reshape.
Fr. Barnabas Nqindi

 The Younger Son,
“The younger son said to his father, “Father, let me have the share of the estate that will come to me.”(Luke 15:11-12) Returning means that he had left home.  The request of the younger son is offensive at many levels. It is hurtful to the
father, for in many ways he is saying to him I do not care whether you are alive or dead. This approach of the son contradicts human life at many cultural levels. How can one wish your parents dead?  If one was to make such a request to parents today the consequences are unimaginable.  The community would reject such
arrogance and behaviour.  What the young son was demanding was only entitled to him when his father had passed
away.  This behaviour of the younger son was scandalous.  The younger son also rejects his home by demanding his inheritance. It is downright selfish. His behaviour points to a self-centred individual. He betrays his
family for this coveted distant country and his departure leaves it impoverished.  We can recognise the younger son within ourselves; the rebellious individual and the self - centred person.  One who was rejecting all the teaching of the Church and rejecting his baptism, through acts of sin.  One who preferred the distant country to the church.  We too have wasted our inheritances, and traded our rights and privileges given to us at our
Baptism for the world.  As the young man soon discovers, the world rejects him when he has nothing more to
give. Most of us have spent more time in the world than we have spent in the
church since our confirmation day.  There is joke that says that Anglicans graduate from the church on
confirmation day. True and equally tragic.   Henri Nouwen says, “Leaving home is,
then, much more than an historical event bound to time and place. It is a denial
of the spiritual reality that I belong to God with every part of my being, that
God holds me safe in an eternal embrace, that I am indeed carved in the palms of
God’s hands and hidden in their shadows.”(Nouwem 2010: 41) For Nouwem leaving
means I am still to come home.  For him home is the ‘centre of my being,’ where,‘I can hear the voice that says:
“you are my beloved, on you my favour rests.”We need to hear this voice, for it
speaks to us, it is the uninterrupted voice of God throughout the ages.  When we hear this voice we know that we
have come home.

Fr. Barnabas Nqindi