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Return of the Prodigal Son - Rembrandt

The Return of the Prodigal Son, A Story of Homecoming, by Henri J.M. Nouwen recently jumped off my bookcase and into my hands.  This is an common occurrence for me.  Many of you might think that I am once again exaggerating this experience.  On the one hand you may be correct, the book did not actually fly into mid-air, float an undetermined distance and find my open hands.  Over the years I have become accustomed to the experience of picking up a random book, opening it up, and knowing that the message within is for me at that time.  This book, at this time is one of those moments. 

Henri Nouwen is one of the most spoken of, read and beloved spiritual /religious writers and teachers of our times.  I remember years ago in my first class in seminary, being assigned, "Life of the Beloved."  The Reverend Margaret Bullit-Jonas was the professor.  Years later I came to know that Henri was one of her closest friends. 

The result of opening the pages of this book was the peeling away of yet another layer of resistance, denial and self-loathing.  Many times in the last 13 years I have given this book as a gift.  Each time I write something inside.  One of the things I find myself saying over and over is that as I began to read these pages, I had the emotional and physical sensation of taking a warm, loving bath in the spirit.  How can we be wrapped in the warmth of God's love through the written word?  When God's deep and profound love for us is broken open, is expressed in a way that speaks to those wounded, painful places.  Henri speaks of God and our journey in faith in a way that is vulnerable and raw. There is no defense to God's grace. 

This famous and well known scholar, teacher, preacher and priest speaks openly and honestly about his struggles, our struggles.  The path of loneliness, insecurity, fear and inadequacy.  We live in a society that tells us repeatedly that with the correct partner, pill, outfit or education we can be perfect.  We can feel whole and well and loved.  We will feel and be "part of".  As with so many things in life this is just false advertising. 

In the book about the Prodigal Son, Henri calls it a story of homecoming.  Early in the book he speaks about the word homecoming assumes that there has been a leaving.  Leaving home, walking away from the warmth and security of all you know.  When we leave home there are many ways to do this.  There is a gathering of lessons, a developmental desire to embark on our own, a need to make our own way.  We are each created to be our own whole and individual spirit in the world.  We are each created to live into the life we are given.  Maturity and healing come when this is done in the context of the whole.  We are not an island, we are all formed by those around us.  Whether healthy or not, full or lacking, we are formed. 

In the story of the Prodigal Son, the youngest son asks his father for all that is his, he doesn't want to wait until the father dies.  This is rude and inappropriate now.  But in those days it was beyond reproach.  This would be unthinkable.  It was as if the son was wishing his father dead.  The context of this must be taken into account.  The son receives his inheritance from his father and leaves.  We get no sense that he turns to look, that he even winces as he leaves.  We are told that he goes forth and squanders it.  In the painting above, we see Rembrandt's vision of the father welcoming home the wayward son. 

"Rembrandt's painting of the father welcoming his son displays scarcely any external movement. In contrast to his 1636 etching of the prodigal son-full of action, the father running to the son and the son throwing himself at his father's feet-the Hermitage painting, made about thirty years later, is one of the utter stillness.  The father's  touching the son is an everlasting blessing; the son resting against his father's breast is an eternal peace."    Henri Nouwen

Henri reminds us that in the parable of the prodigal son we are drawn yet another picture of the boundlessness of God's compassionate love.  How do we leave home in our lives today?  How can we feel on the outside, how can we go forth and squander the love and abundance that God has blessed us with? 

"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.  Leaving home means ignoring the truth that God has 'fashioned me in secret, moulded me in the depths of the earth and knitted me together in my mother's womb.' "  Henri Nouwen

We live differently, we love differently, we experience the world differently when we are able to remember that we are God's beloved, that the spiritual reality is the one true way of being. 

As I continue to read this book I will be reflecting on the many ways we are pulled away from the home of our being.  The many temptations that lure us away from the loving messages that are God. 

"Yet over and over again I have left home.  I have fled the hands of blessing and run off to faraway places searching for love!  This is the great tragedy of my life and of the lives of so many I meet on my journey."  Henri Nouwen

In this day, as the rain comes down, the sun hides behind the clouds and the radiators creak, let us take a deep breath.  Let know and remember that we are God's beloved child.  We are home when we are not lured away by messages from outside our hearts and souls.  Let us also be gentle on ourselves as we are reminded that we all turn and leave, we all walk away.  But let us also remember that waiting for us, with loving arms, is the God that weeps with joy at our return.