THE THIRD SON

Why man?
Every time a man is born
God knows the torments of childbirth.
God expressed his love for man
with tears.

A. Merini

When painters (for example Rembrandt, Chagall, Murillo, to name a few) commented on Luke 15, they always immortalized the encounter between the prodigal son and the merciful father, leaving out other characters. Let’s think for example of the eldest son. But on a careful reading of the Gospel text, how many are the children of the merciful father, icon of the Father of heaven? There are three children, not two. But let’s go gradually. If the younger son had cut off all relations with his family because he was convinced that in order to live one must go far from home, thus dissolving every moral and emotional bond with his father, his brother, and the environment, the eldest son
thought instead that in order to live (a problem that haunts them both) one had to defend one’s expectations and privileges. The first is one who changes life; the second is one who maintains life. Who is right? Neither of them. One fact emerges: both are marked by a physical void. Although in different positions, they are frustrated with food (the first does not even have the pigs’ pods to satisfy himself, the second complains that he has never had a kid to celebrate with). They are therefore dissatisfied children, who try to fill the void in debauchery or with rigid obedience to the dictates of their father: “I have never disobeyed your command” (Lk 15:29), says the elder. The attitude of both brothers towards their father is that of the servant towards the master.
The paradox of this family is that the servants are treated like sons and have bread in abundance (cf. Lk 15:17) while the sons feel and behave like servants (cf. Lk 15:29) or yearn to be one (cf. Lk 15:19). But there is also a difference between the two; the younger hopes to be treated like a wage-earner, the elder thinks he is a servant without rights. This is well highlighted by the verb used by the latter: douleuo, to indicate the
long and painful service he endured. Douleuo indicates the service of a slave. The service marked by love instead has another verb: diakoneo (cf. Lk 22:17). As a servant/slave he does not have a collaborative role with the father, but a servile and obedient one. And here a third son emerges. Who is he? The one who is telling the parable, Jesus. He also left his father’s house but to come and look for us in our dispersion and bring us back to the father’s bosom; he also obeyed the Father’s will but in a free and loving way. Here is the son we want to imitate.

Commentary by b. Sandro Carotta, osb
Abbazia di Praglia (Italy)

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves,
Prinknash Abbey