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| Icon of the Return of The Prodigal Son |
In a Benny Hester classic, When God Ran, the song paints an intimate picture of Love:
He ran to me,
Took me in His arms, held my head to His chest
And said "My son's come home again".
Looked in my face, wiped the tears from my eyes
With forgiveness in His voice
He said "Son, do you know I still love you?"
(see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWnbXPYUxFY)
Intentionally emotional and catchy, this 1986 chart-topper somehow capsulized the internalization of the forgiven one: the prodigal son. Yet, the experience was no doubt personalized and was drawn perhaps from the life of Benny Hester. And who would not be "caught by surprised" when one sees God running towards him? I don't believe we'd ever be the same once we encounter God in this intimate position.
Leaving romanticism aside, I believe that the "heterodox song" could not be far from the truth.
In Orthodoxy, our Lord God is not a tyrannical judge who doesn't know the word "parole" or "clemency". Nor is God the kind who just turns a blind eye on what we do out of "tolerance".
However, God expects us to MAN UP and realize our faults so we can freely surrender ourselves to Him in a loving embrace.
According to St. Mark the Ascetic,
No one is good and kind as the Lord is; but He does not forgive one who does not repent.
Luke 15: 11-32 tells us the complete details of how God forgives:
20 “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring[a] out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. 23 And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; 24 for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.
In my previous write-up, I have noted how the conscious and voluntary realization of our faults through notoriety and God's judgment can lead us to genuine repentance. Guilt is a symptomatic feeling that something is wrong. When our moral compass gives in, when the wall of conscience cracks, that is the time that the Holy Spirit is at work within us. Guilt should prompt us to confession and CHANGE. Once we arrive at a conscious decision, prodded by the Holy Spirit, that we need to go back home to our God, God is here drawing near us even before we can draw near Him.
(see: http://abrahamsdescendant.blogspot.com/2014/01/in-this-life-notoriety-judgment.html)
Consider the words of St. Cyril of Jerusalem:
For God seeks nothing else from us, save a good purpose. Say not, How are my sins blotted out? I tell thee, By willing, by believing. What can be shorter than this? But if, while thy lips declare thee willing, thy heart be silent, He knoweth the heart, who judgeth thee. Cease from this day from every evil deed. Let not thy tongue speak unseemly words, let thine eye abstain from sin, and from roving after things unprofitable. (Procatechesis)
When God forgives, it's not enough to see ourselves forgiven. We need to accept God's challenge of a new life with Him. In Orthodox speak, new life means being born again: once, we are not conscious or aware of our sins. But now that we are forgiven, we are now aware of our weaknesses so we STRIVE to change ourselves.
(to be continued...)
Photo:
http://saintannas.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/prodigal-son-icon-1.png
READS:
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+15%3A11-32&version=NKJV
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.monachos.net/library/whats-new/706
http://www.wenorthodox.com/2012/12/the-bible-and-early-church-fathers-on-confession-of-sin/
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