The Other Son
The story of the prodigal son is perhaps the best known biblical parable. The story features a rebellious son returning home to his father in desperation. Yet despite having left his father and squandered his inheritance, his father accepts him back with unconditional love, and with a feast celebrating his return. However, this article is not about his reunion with his father. His story is well known to modern sensibilities. I want to examine the second son, the one who stayed by his fathers side unwaveringly until his brother came home. Instead of celebrating, the elder brother complains that his father hasn't given him anything for his own loyalty. I want to focus on the loyal brother because he has a very important lesson for modern Christians, specifically the “devout” kind that might venture to read a Christian publication. The problem with the second son isn't what he was doing - it was why and how he was doing it. Intention matters. Worship cannot come out of our own pride, self-righteousness, hubris, or fear. The mistake made by too many (particularly devout) Christians is maintaining their faith out of pride and even hate before humility and love.
Christianity in America has abandoned traditional doctrine for a sort of general spirituality. Most Furman students likely say they believe in Christ, and definitely in a god. But of those, a minority probably go to church even monthly. The radical differences in Christian devotion ends up creating two classes in the devout minds: the “real” and “fake” christians. Instead of looking up at God we look down on “bad Christians”. Worship becomes not an act of giving praise, but preserving personal pride. Contempt often follows as the demonstration of ritual (prayer, church attendance, saint medallions) becomes more important than the God it is supposed to be praising. As G.K. Chesterton says,“That Jones shall worship the god within him turns out ultimately to mean that Jones shall worship Jones” (Chesterton, 138). All those penances and fasts, those rosaries and holy water, did not bring us closer to God, but instead closer to ourselves.
The second sons, however, have reason for hope. We are not without example. Chesterton also reminds us that “Christianity came into the
world firstly in order to assert with violence that a man had not only to look inwards, but to look outwards, to behold with astonishment and enthusiasm a divine company and a divine captain” (Chesterton, 139). We learn the true origin of service is not the act of doing–it is in the act of loving. Jesus instructs us “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Everything in the Law and the Prophets depends on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:39, NCB). While this sentiment is familiar, the crucial last line is often cut: “The Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments.” The merit of our ritual practice does not come from the ritual itself; ritual does not require the soul or even the mind. Righteousness, however, does require an act of the internal soul–it requires love.
The way out seems daunting: the lesson requires us to change the entire way we think. It means sitting in a room alone and having a conversation or being in the silent presence of something beyond yourself. It especially requires a critique of our practice. Prideful public displays of the faith should not be viewed as praiseworthy but as deserving of condemnation. Begin to think of time in prayer not as a moment of personal accomplishment but as a visit to a spiritual hospital. No saint was made by their pride, but all were made by their deep understanding of their own failings. To all other devout sons, join me in asking: why? Why do I practice and preach as I do? Be vigilant about these things and our Father will surely tell us too that “everything I have is yours'' (Luke 15:25 NCB).
Chesterton, G. K. 1874-1936. Orthodoxy. New York: John Lane Company, 1908.