'Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.'
So the father divided the property between them.
After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings
and set off to a distant country
where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation.
We sometimes make the mistake of trying to take our inheritance and spend it far from the Father's presence. We think that if we can seize it for ourselves we can have unfettered enjoyment of it whereas when we remain with the Father it tends to seem to be a promise that is always around one more corner that we never quite turn. We don't often realize what the father in the story told the elder son when he said, "everything I have is yours". Our recourse is either to stay and become embittered like the elder son or to leave and squander our inheritance on a life of dissipation as did the younger son.
For some reason it seems we usually have to learn the hard way that there is only one way to enjoy our inheritance. It is only possible in the Father's house when we learn that everything he has is already ours.
For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's (see First Corinthians 3:21-23).
If all things are in fact already ours why do we often experience the feelings of absence and privation? Is it because we don't really desire what is good according to the mind of God but would prefer instead that he was merely the caterer for our own private party? Is it because the good things he desires to give are not really those things that we desire? He does have an inheritance that he longs to share with us, but it cannot be spent on the flesh or on dissipation. His riches are instead invested in heavenly treasure, lacking the impermanence of our earthly desires, treasure that neither moth nor rust can destroy (see Matthew 6:19-21).
that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints (see Ephesians 1:18).
giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light (see Colossians 1:12).
to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you (see First Peter 1:4).
If we are experiencing dryness and hunger, if we long to eat even from swine pods of the surrounding culture to find some solace, let us come to our senses. Let us arise, and go to the Father. If we mistrust the Father because he has never seemed to provide us the party with our friends for which we secretly hoped and yet never even really asked, let us come in and join the feast that is already always in progress. The Father will run out to meet us, and plead for us to come in and enter the feast. His heart does not dwell on the mistakes of our past but rather longs to truly share his inheritance with us in the way he always intended.
But when your son returns
who swallowed up your property with prostitutes,
for him you slaughter the fattened calf.
We ought not spend time comparing ourselves with others when they seem to be receiving more than ourselves. No one has earned the feast to which we are invited. And yet, are all called to attend. There is nothing subtracted from ourselves when God blesses another. In fact it all redounds to a good that we are all meant to enjoy together.
But now we must celebrate and rejoice,
because your brother was dead and has come to life again;
he was lost and has been found.
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