“The Father saw him coming from afar and had compassion on him!” (Lk 15:20).
We all know the moving New Testament passage about the prodigal son who squandered his fortune and returned to his father’s house. There, he was joyfully received by his father, and a feast was celebrated. We understand very well that something of the true image of our heavenly Father should be conveyed to us.
Indeed, our heavenly Father waits for us, witnessing how we humans often squander our divine inheritance, like the prodigal son in the parable.
However, it is our Father’s loving patience that never gives up and “sees us coming from afar.” The parable refers not only to physical distance. We can also relate it to man’s spiritual distance from God. When someone recognizes his misery, realizes he has gone the wrong way, and timidly begins to look for God, the Father sees him coming from afar. Our Father knows his heart and his need because he perceives even the slightest will to repent. He has followed the prodigal son with love and has seen all his mistakes. He has always called him, and now that he has taken the first step, our Father provides him with all the grace he needs to continue on the path of repentance.
Perhaps this person, having returned to the Father’s house, will become someone who is ready to take special care of his heritage and live up to his dignity as a son of the Heavenly King.
He can apply the words that Holy King Stephen (whose feast is celebrated today in the Old Rite) addressed to his son, Emmerich, to himself:
“My son, if you wish to honor the royal crown, I command and advise you to conscientiously and carefully uphold the Catholic and apostolic faith.”