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00:00Brothers, welcome.
00:29We are in our last session where we will look at the pastoral theme.
00:36The dynamics of the liturgical year have taught us to wait and pray for the coming of the kingdom of God during the time of Advent and to ask for forgiveness in a constant process of conversion during the time of Lent.
00:52Brothers and sisters, Advent fills us with the special touch of the nearness of Christmas, and Lent anticipates and makes Easter more tangible during the Easter Triduum.
01:07There's nothing like experiencing Advent and savoring Lent.
01:12But, brothers, during the time of Lent that the Church has wanted to provide us as a suitable time for meditation, one of the most beautiful narratives of the Bible, the parable of the Prodigal Son.
01:30Many have spoken about the advisability of designating the parable with another title, such as the parable about the Compassionate Father, about the Merciful Father, about the Father Full of Tenderness, or if we follow in the line of the two previous ones, the parable of the Lost Son.
01:53Although, apparently, the center of the parable is the Father of the Son who leaves and of the Son who does not want to celebrate the return of his brother with a party.
02:07It really doesn't matter, primarily because the parable focuses its attention on the Son who has asked the Father for his share of the inheritance and has left with all his possessions a few days after getting what he asked of his Father.
02:27In fact, unlike the first two parables in chapter 15 of the Gospel of Saint Luke, the author draws our attention to the anxious search for the sheep that the man lost or the coin that the woman lost.
02:46However, in the parable about the son who left, Luke places all the emphasis on the fate of the boy who left his father's house.
02:58However, to understand this parable we need to take a quick look at the introduction of the text and at the parables of the lost sheep and the lost drachma, because the union of the three parables is offered to us in a continuous and perfect increase.
03:21In the first parable of the lost sheep, the man has one hundred sheep.
03:28In the parable of the lost drachma, the woman only has ten coins, and in the parable of the son who leaves, the father only has two sons.
03:38The numbering of the elements decreases, first one hundred, then ten, and finally only two.
03:46In the case of the sheep, it is not the shepherd who loses it, but the sheep, due to some unforeseen circumstance, has strayed from the group and finally become lost.
04:00In the case of the coin, it is the woman who loses said coin, but in both cases the animal and the coin belong to categories of possession, food and commerce.
04:14In the case of the third parable, we move to the family level.
04:19He is a father who has two sons and one of them, the younger one, decides to leave home, distancing himself from his father, his home and his brother.
04:31In all three cases, the concluding theme is the joy of finding something so precious that had been lost.
04:41And in the case of the recovered son, this joy is realized with the invitation to hold a party and in the holding of the party itself.
04:51Apparently, brothers, the author who has artfully, but no less masterfully, placed the three parables one after the other,
05:04It makes us think that perhaps a shepherd might not miss one out of a hundred sheep,
05:11But a woman who only has ten coins cannot adopt that attitude, because ten coins are very little and losing even one is losing too much.
05:24because with that currency a family could survive for an entire day and eat properly,
05:32so he can't afford to lose a single coin.
05:36But in the case of the father it is even more disturbing; he only has two children, and a mother is not mentioned in the entire story.
05:47not even for the joy of the son's return, nor when the great celebration takes place.
05:53So we can assume that the man is a widower and only possesses, as his greatest assets, two children,
06:02their lands, which could not be many, given that the eldest son was working when the younger brother returned home,
06:14some possessions and certainly a young, well-fed or well-cared-for bull.
06:21Therefore, the departure of a son is, in itself, a great tragedy for a widowed man, and perhaps a somewhat older one.
06:32Background
06:32Brothers, to understand the parable of the prodigal son, we need to delve into the Old Testament
06:39to find a text that deals with a similar topic and that can help us understand our text.
06:48We will find this story in the book of Tobit, one of the so-called deuterocanonical books.
06:57The book begins by talking about Tobir, Tobias's father, who had left some money in the care of a relative.
07:06Once Tobir goes blind, he sends his son to the city of Media to collect the money.
07:13Tobias leaves accompanied by the angel Raphael, but on the way he meets Sarah, the woman who will later become his wife,
07:23Tobias takes a long time to return.
07:27Tobir and Ana, his wife and Tobias's mother, begin to despair because their son does not return.
07:35And the two of them begin to suffer from the absence of their son.
07:40That's when we get to chapter 10.
07:43Let's read the text.
07:44Meanwhile, Tobir counted one by one the days that the round trip should last.
07:54When the deadline passed, and her son had not returned, she thought,
07:59Did they keep him there?
08:02Perhaps Gabael has died and there is no one to give him the money.
08:06And he began to worry.
08:09Ana, his wife, said,
08:12My son has died.
08:14He is no longer among the living.
08:16And she began to weep and lament for her son, saying,
08:21What a misfortune, my son!
08:23I let you go.
08:25To you, the light of my eyes.
08:27Tobir was saying to him,
08:29Calm down, sister.
08:31Don't think that.
08:33He's fine.
08:34They must have had some setback.
08:37Your partner is a trustworthy person.
08:41He is one of our brothers.
08:43Don't worry about him.
08:45It will arrive any moment now.
08:48But she replied,
08:50Leave me alone, don't try to deceive me.
08:53My son has died.
08:55And every day she went out to look at the road where her son had gone.
09:00Because he didn't trust anyone.
09:02As evening fell, she was at home and spent her nights crying and lamenting, unable to sleep.
09:12Ana sat with her gaze fixed on the path her son was to return by.
09:18Suddenly, she sensed his arrival and said to her father,
09:23Your son is coming with his friend.
09:27The mother ran to throw her arms around her son's neck, saying,
09:32Now I can die, because I have seen you again, my son.
09:37And she started to cry.
09:39Tobir also got up and stumbled out of the courtyard door.
09:44Then his father hugged him, crying, and said,
09:50I see you, my son, light of my eyes.
09:53Brothers, as we can see, the theme of our parable and of the text of Tobias is the son who leaves.
10:02The reasons are very different.
10:04Tobias is tasked with collecting money that his father left at a relative's house.
10:11Therefore, Tobias goes far away.
10:14In the case of our parable,
10:16The youngest son is the one who voluntarily leaves with the goods he has taken from his father.
10:23Human beings are proud by nature.
10:26and is capable of holding a grudge when someone lets him down,
10:32hurts him, betrays him, or disappoints him.
10:35Moreover, their resentment can turn into contempt, even hatred,
10:41when things take an even more unexpected turn.
10:47This doesn't only happen between people with distant human relationships.
10:52It even happens to us with the people we love and who love us.
10:57And that's when we think about a possible reconciliation.
11:03We fear that the person will refuse, reject us, or say something that will worsen the situation.
11:10But let's return to Tobias and his parents.
11:13As we can see, once a considerable amount of time has passed,
11:18The boy's parents begin to worry
11:21and to look for reasons why the son has not returned.
11:27While Tobir thinks in practical terms to Ana, Tobias's mother,
11:32think the worst and begin a process of despair and anguish,
11:38because he is certain that his son has died.
11:41Of that, he has no doubt whatsoever.
11:45Verse 7 is a profound analysis of a mother's heart
11:50or from the heart of someone who loves deeply.
11:55Well, the text says that Ana went out every day to see the road
11:59where his son had gone
12:01and that in the afternoons, when the sun set,
12:05She would return home and spend her nights sleepless and crying.
12:11But brothers, how could I find comfort?
12:15What if her dear, beloved son wasn't by her side?
12:19Is there any greater pain than losing a child?
12:24without knowing anything about his whereabouts?
12:27That's something we can see very well.
12:30in our current situation of insecurity.
12:34How many parents have lost their children?
12:36without knowing anything about them?
12:38The world is collapsing and life is losing its meaning
12:43when we know nothing about those we love dearly.
12:48Who can eat, have fun, laugh, sleep, smile, rest
12:56What if a child has left and nothing is known about him?
13:00To understand this, one must take into account
13:04that in the times of the narrative of Tobias
13:07There are no immediate means of communication.
13:10News, both good and bad, takes time to arrive.
13:14There's no way of knowing what situation he's in.
13:17someone we love deeply,
13:20someone who is everything in our lives.
13:23But, brothers, what happens when the loved one
13:28So much time away and without a single news about his life
13:32suddenly appears in the path?
13:36You can only jump for joy, bliss, happiness
13:40and nothing can stop him from running to meet her.
13:44with tears in her eyes and fill him with hugs and kisses
13:49to that loved one lost for so long
13:53and whom, deep in their hearts, they thought had died.
14:19Thank you!