Lk. 15: 1-32
During our annual retreat, the preacher shared with us an unbelievable story of Jacques Fesch . His father was a rich French banker, who was an artist and atheist, and did not care for his son. Jacques led a loose life. He abandoned religion at the age of 17 and was dismissed from the school for misconduct and laziness at the age of 21. After a while, he legally married his pregnant girlfriend Pierrette. But, he was not faithful to her. He had an extramarital relationship and had an illegitimate son. He wanted to continue his hedonistic life and escape to the Caribbean islands, running away from the problems of family life. His father was not ready to provide money for him to buy a boat for the journey. Therefore, he planned a robbery. Anyhow, the attempt flopped and he shot dead a police officer in the process. He was arrested; the court found him guilty and condemned to death penalty. The next day, the prison chaplain approached him. But he was not ready to listen to him. The influence of the lawyer appointed by the government to defend his cause brought drastic changes in his life. He underwent a miraculous conversion experience and fell in love with Jesus. He sincerely repented for all his crimes and reconciled with his dear and near ones especially with his wife. The most amazing thing is that he started to write a spiritual journal. He accepted his punishment. Unfortunately, his mercy plea was rejected and he was guillotined. The last entry in his spiritual journal was like this: “In five hours I will see Jesus!” The moment he recognized his blessings, his journey of renewal began…
Being grateful is the ground of all our relationships. The moment we forget this fact, we are losing something very vital to our nature. The same is applicable in our relationship with God. Today the church gives us one of the most lovable passages of the gospel for reflection. Luke 15 contains three parables. The parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. Through these three parables, Jesus reveals the merciful face of his ‘Abba’ who goes in search of the strayed or the lost one. I would like to focus on the parable of the lost son. Why did he leave his house? The answer in simple words is that he wasn’t grateful to his father who squandered him with immense love and care.
The moment the attitude of gratitude was lost, he lost himself. He felt that he was imprisoned in his father’s house and somehow he wanted to escape from there. When he lost his sense of gratitude he lost his own humanity and his tender love. That is why he demanded his father’s property while his father was alive. In Jewish culture, it is equal to treating his father as dead. He went away from his home to enjoy without being grateful. In end he ended up in a pig sty, lost all his wealth and dignity, with not even food to satisfy his hunger. At this juncture, when everything was lost, he became aware of the need to be grateful. He started to count his blessings… “How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger. I will arise and go to my father…” With the dawn of the awareness of the sense of gratitude, the rays and grace of conversion began to sweep his life. I believe his return journey could be the most beautiful experience in this story. He left home on a horse back but returned as a beggar, sans even sandals to protect his fee. But, in reality, only then did he really become rich. A single virtue is way too valuable than any material possessions; and he reclaimed his lost virtue of gratefulness. In that return journey his past life in his father’s house with its pomp’s and glories must have flashed through gis mind and true sorrow for not being grateful for all these blessings, must have washed him clean.
Even before he acknowledges his gratitude to his father, blessings come one by one. Father gives him the best robe that indicates restoration of lost grace; his ring that represents his lost sonship; his sandals convey his lost dignity and a solemn banquet in his honour to tell the whole world that he came back to the communion with his beloved father and he is no more a prodigal son but his beloved son.
The story of a prodigal son is not a single story. The prodigal son represents all of us, the entire humanity. His fall represents the first fall in the Garden of Eden to our own personal failures. We all might have left our father’s house at one point or the other misled by the mirages of life. Some of us returned and some have not yet. Why did we leave the father’s house? The answer is the same. We lost the sense of gratitude to the Lord or we lost the sight of our merciful father. We felt that the real freedom is away from our father’s house. We move away from the presence of our father, causing him pain, treating him equally as dead. Yet when we come to our senses, when we regain the sense of being grateful, we recognize the fact that we have a father who awaits us… Let us be grateful to God for all what we are.
The story of Jacques Fesch does not end there, his writings inspired many and effected conversions. God welcomed this prodigal son with a great banquet of love. His cause of beatification was officially opened in 1993.