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To: marbren

No.

Primarily, the parable is about the generosity of God’s forgiveness. You can leave God, throw away His grace, and commit all kinds of sins. But even then, His conscience is within you, if you listen to it. And no matter how bad the sins, there is always a chance to repent, return, and find that God has forgiven you.

For Catholics, of course, this would involve the Sacrament of Confession. For Protestants, real sorrow for sins, repentance, and promise of amendment.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that the parable cannot have other meanings as well. In a literal sense, Judaism might be considered to be the elder brother. But the behavioral pattern of the two brothers argues the opposite. Judaism broke with God and went into exile, as it did earlier in Babylon. Not Christianity. So it is Judaism that will return at the end—and, of course, continues to be loved by God even in exile, as God continued to love the younger son of the parable in the midst of his sins, and wished for his repentance and return.


2 posted on 10/15/2011 9:40:08 AM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius.)
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To: Cicero
Thank You for your post. Grace was my primary focus until this morning. Have you ever heard of the church being the prodigal son and Israel the older brother?
4 posted on 10/15/2011 9:55:37 AM PDT by marbren (I do not know but, Thank God, God knows)
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To: Cicero
"In a literal sense, Judaism might be considered to be the elder brother."

Was Abraham a Jew when he was saved by faith?

Faith is the older brother.

6 posted on 10/15/2011 9:58:40 AM PDT by GourmetDan (Eccl 10:2 - The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left.)
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To: Cicero

This Catholic commentary disagrees with yours:

The prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32)

The prodigal son, so called from verse 13, has a deep ethical meaning, but likewise a dogmatic, in which the two sons are the Israelite, staying at home in his father’s house, and the Gentile who has wandered away. As the message of pardon it deserves to be called the very heart of Christ’s gospel. We have justified these parallel lines of interpretation, for ethics and revelation, which were both visible to the Evangelist. Tertullian’s narrow use of the story is uncritical. St. John Chrysostom and the Church always have applied it to Christian, i.e., baptized penitents. The “first [or best] robe” is naturally assumed by theologians to be “original justice”, and the feast of reconciliation is our Lord’s atoning sacrifice. Those who grant a strong Pauline influence in St. Luke’s Gospel ought not to deny it here. The “jealousy of good men” towards returned prodigals, which has exercised commentators, is true to life; and it counted for much in the dissensions that finally clove asunder the Church of Israel from the Church of Christ (1 Thessalonians 2:14-16). The joy over a sinner’s conversion unites this parable with those of the lost sheep and the lost drachma.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11460a.htm


178 posted on 10/18/2011 12:22:33 AM PDT by mas cerveza por favor
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