"Children of the Living God" by Sinclair Ferguson
"Putting Amazing Back into Grace" by Michael Horton
"Renewal as a Way of Life: A Guide for Spiritual Growth" by Richard F. Lovelace
"The Jesus I Never Knew" by Phillip Yancey
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Another Point of View - The Older Brother
The father goes out to meet the older brother too, and now he speaks kindly to his son. The older brother knows nothing of the inner transformations and wanderings experienced by the younger brother, of his journey to distant parts, of his all and his new self-discovery. He sees only injustice. And this betrays the fact that he too had secretly dreamed of a freedom without limits, that his obedience has made him inwardly bitter, and that he has no awareness of the grace of being at home, of the true freedom that he enjoys as a son. "Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours." (Luke 15:2)."
. . .
"The parable breaks off here; it tells us nothing about the older brother's reaction. Nor can it, because at this point the parable immediately passes over into reality. Jesus is using these words of the father to speak to the heart of the murmuring Pharisees and scribes who have grown indignant at his goodness to sinners (cf. Luke 15:2). It now becomes fully clear that Jesus identifies his goodness to sinners with the goodness of the father in the parable and that all the words attributed to the father are the words that he himself addresses to the righteous. The parable does not tell the story of some distant affair, but is about what is happening here and now through him. He is wooing the heart of his adversaries. He begs them to come in and to share his joy at this hour of homecoming and reconciliation. . . ."
From pages 208-209 in "Jesus of Nazareth" by Pope BenedictXVI
. . .
"The parable breaks off here; it tells us nothing about the older brother's reaction. Nor can it, because at this point the parable immediately passes over into reality. Jesus is using these words of the father to speak to the heart of the murmuring Pharisees and scribes who have grown indignant at his goodness to sinners (cf. Luke 15:2). It now becomes fully clear that Jesus identifies his goodness to sinners with the goodness of the father in the parable and that all the words attributed to the father are the words that he himself addresses to the righteous. The parable does not tell the story of some distant affair, but is about what is happening here and now through him. He is wooing the heart of his adversaries. He begs them to come in and to share his joy at this hour of homecoming and reconciliation. . . ."
From pages 208-209 in "Jesus of Nazareth" by Pope BenedictXVI
Another Point of View - The Younger Brother - 2
"For the Jews, the pig is an unclean animal, which means that the swine-heard is the expression of man's most extreme destitution. The totally free man has become a wretched slave.
At this point the "conversion" takes place. The prodigal son realizes he is lost - that at home he was free and that his father's servants are freer than he now is, who had once considered himself completely free. "He went into himself.", the Gospel says (Luke 15:17). As with the passage about the "far country," these words set the Church Fathers thinking philosophically: Living far away from home, from his origin, this man had also strayed far away from himself. He had lived away from the truth of his essence.
His change of heart, his "conversion" consists in his recognition of this, his realization that he has become alienated and wandered into truly "alien lands", and his return to himself. What he finds in himself, though, is the compass pointing toward the father, toward the true freedom of a "son."
From pages 204-205 of "Jesus of Nazareth" by Pope Benedict XVI
At this point the "conversion" takes place. The prodigal son realizes he is lost - that at home he was free and that his father's servants are freer than he now is, who had once considered himself completely free. "He went into himself.", the Gospel says (Luke 15:17). As with the passage about the "far country," these words set the Church Fathers thinking philosophically: Living far away from home, from his origin, this man had also strayed far away from himself. He had lived away from the truth of his essence.
His change of heart, his "conversion" consists in his recognition of this, his realization that he has become alienated and wandered into truly "alien lands", and his return to himself. What he finds in himself, though, is the compass pointing toward the father, toward the true freedom of a "son."
From pages 204-205 of "Jesus of Nazareth" by Pope Benedict XVI
Another Point of View - The Younger Brother
What does Pope Benedict say about the Prodigal Son parable?
The younger brother:
"Is it difficult for us to see clearly reflected here the spirit of the modern rebellion against God and God's law? The leaving behind of everything we once depended on and the will to a freedom without limits? The Greek word used in the parable for the property the son dissipates means "essence" in the vocabulary of Greek philosophy. The prodigal dissipates "his essence", himself.
At the end it is all gone. He who was once completely free is now truly a slave - a swineherd, who would be happy to be given pig feed to eat. Those who understand freedom as a radically arbitrary license to do just want they want and have their own way are living in a lie, for by his very nature, man is part of a shared existence and his freedom is a shared freedom. His very nature contains direction and norm, and becoming inwardly one with this direction and norm is what freedom is all about His false autonomy thus leads to slavery.
From page 204 of "Jesus of Nazareth" by Pope Benedict XVI
The younger brother:
"Is it difficult for us to see clearly reflected here the spirit of the modern rebellion against God and God's law? The leaving behind of everything we once depended on and the will to a freedom without limits? The Greek word used in the parable for the property the son dissipates means "essence" in the vocabulary of Greek philosophy. The prodigal dissipates "his essence", himself.
At the end it is all gone. He who was once completely free is now truly a slave - a swineherd, who would be happy to be given pig feed to eat. Those who understand freedom as a radically arbitrary license to do just want they want and have their own way are living in a lie, for by his very nature, man is part of a shared existence and his freedom is a shared freedom. His very nature contains direction and norm, and becoming inwardly one with this direction and norm is what freedom is all about His false autonomy thus leads to slavery.
From page 204 of "Jesus of Nazareth" by Pope Benedict XVI
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