On the Prodigal Son

On the Prodigal Son This is his, when it is the homily of the twenty-third. On the Prodigal Son In this week of the Passion, every night the homily is recited. A homily. That he endured the Passion My brethren. For the abundance of the books of the Spirit, I sought to be instructed And I began to meditate on what is written in the Gospel, the man and his sons. At the beginning of the sections, the story of the division of the treasures struck me A father who bequeathed the wealth of his love to his two sons. I heard the younger one when he was saying to his parent Give me my portion so that I may be master over my own affairs. Give me my share so that I may be lord of my treasures and manage what is mine As it befits free sons to rule. Give me so that I may acquire the name of a free man in my deeds And know, and know, everyone who from the lineage of a father acquires freedom. If a son inherits a full share of the inheritances And my mind is troubled by the trial of the conduct of my life. And the father knew that his son was not fit He did not trouble himself to fulfill the desire of his own self. And when he did not err from the pleasure of his son's error He did not consider that he would give more to the one who was lacking. And when it was his to give more to the one who was worthy In equality he gave the great wealth of his pleasure. In equal division of the wealth to his sons, the father of mercy And he did not consider with the worthless one that he would be insolent and ask.

He took the inheritance from the wealthy father, and seized the possessions, and with their portion they divided, and one became estranged from his companion. The younger one squandered the wealth that came to him from his father's house, and he went far off and settled in a place far removed from his acquaintances. With his portion he also separated his love from his parent, and he loved and cherished the company of harlots. He lost the noble portion of the fine garments of his father's house, and began to revel without restraint among free men. With his own person and body he went out and became estranged from the men of his kind, and with his portion his thoughts were bound after their error. He took all the wealth, a spendthrift, and went out with it, and he left no remnant of his love for his relatives. He went out from the family and loved the desolate place full of thorns, and he immersed himself in it in prodigality and vileness. A foul stench corrupted his thoughts with the blow of iniquity, and his mouth gave birth and his eyes grew the fruit of shame. Vileness cast down the honor of the wise man's son, and like a commoner he went out and humbled himself before prostitutes. He lost his wisdoms and cast away the name of his dignity, and he did not remember what and whose and of what lineage he was. He ate the food of prodigality with gluttons, and immersed himself in a shameful brothel with vile men. His mind was drunk with the agitations of body and soul, and his eyes ran after the movements of his limbs without restraint.

He grew thin and was consumed by the burning desire of the flesh, the food of death, and he did not understand that by his food he was destroying the boundaries of his life. He wasted his surplus and scattered his possessions among brothels, and he became needy of the boundaries and of the house. He toiled and ate, and his gluttony was not satisfied, and he borrowed and was dragged along, and he hired out his own person for the food of the day. With the glutton he hired out his labor to work for hire, and his knowledge became a servant in the harsh mill of his bitterness. Like a spendthrift he was consumed in it without restraint, and as with a pig he made his pasture a trough of filth. He sent swine into the filth to graze on what is more precious than all, and from his carobs he gave him food as to the deaf. With the beasts he equated his life, the measure of his hire. And with the silent ones he bound the course of his prodigality. His food became smaller even than that of the deaf whom he tended, and he made haste to sell his life from what was desired. For he ate the reckless food without satiety, and he was troubled that his belly was not filled from the carobs. Severe pain was added to his hunger, and he was left, when his food was reckless and scanty and he made haste, the pain of his own person tormented him more than hunger, because he had lost along with his boundaries also his wisdom. In his pain and hunger he wished to be left in a prodigal manner, that he might know what his cause was and why it was written in the Gospel.

sions. His story is worn out from the beginning, when the parable touched him, whether it is this deed or not. His story is true or not true, I was inquiring, and he took wealth from his father's house as was fitting. In the house of divisions, his thoughts stood up concerning his village, and they called him, whether it is not this deed that was seen. In the book of the spirit that wrote his story, I wondered greatly; he inscribed his memory in his idleness and placed it in the house of the elders. In the form of an image, he entered to receive him in the house of the fugitives, so that everyone might see what he did and of what sort and on what account he labored. Now it is fitting that there be no dispute concerning his deed, for behold, the herald of the spirit shows that his story is true. It is a parable, not a bodily deed, and when it is good, it is not his true story and great is its proof. Great wealth is hidden in his story, even if it is not this deed, and the power of the worker and the work of his hands are revealed in it. The man whom God wrote is the whole, who established the whole, and his two sons are the two orders of the righteous and the sinners. The wealth that distributes is the discernment that gives to the eloquent, that they may be those who separate the power of the work of the heavy one. The elder son became the perfect ones, the lovers of his love, and the younger son became the runners of the love of the earthly ones. To the good and the evil, the creator gives the power of his wisdom, and among the just and the unjust, he placed the foundation.

They sinned in love and wasted their treasures, and they were at ease in dissipation and the wealth of their desires. They are the ones who rebelled against the authority of their father's house and repaid the debt that men owe to his commandment. The small portion of wealth that reached him he squandered, and he distanced himself greatly from the evil men who had filled the debt of spiritual things. They are the ones who erred and departed from the side of truth, and they went far away and began to wander from the path of the name of the Creator. They are the ones who dissipated wealth and the existence that was in them, and it was lost, and the life of their mind perished from them. They are the ones who ate and drank in dissipation, and the desire of their thoughts was not filled with satiety. And they are the ones who worked for wages with a worthless man, and they sinned and wallowed in their vices and their deeds. For he who hired them and they worked with him, and he did not give wages, kills men, he who defrauds all of profit. With him that freeborn son hired himself out, he who stood in authority, and he became one whose deed is empty of the treasures of discernment. And he became a hireling whose deed is a shepherd of harlots, and he gave him a gluttonous meal without satiety. He became one whose custom is in the cesspool of the filth of vileness, and as one drunk with wine, he was drunk with sin and lost his existence. The sinner did not cease from his deeds, and with him he hired out vices that have no end.

they had incurred. They are the swine that are written of, the arm of the breast that has no limit. Their labor is iniquity, not that there is no profit for him who labors for it. Again, that which was said, that he was agitated to fill his belly: it is the evil desire of the insatiable gullets. The dry and the moist, the food of profligacy, which once the heart delights in, is no longer to be found. Thus does sinful habit at all times pursue its near ones, dragging the heart to revel in vain pleasures. Like a harlot, she shows the faces of worthlessness, and in place of the body, a base image enters with the thought. Her garment is stained from the contemptible beasts, and her embrace is defiled by the filth of the unchaste. With her, the profligate son goes astray, who casts off his garments, and she defiles him in the partnership of the poor and the destitute. Her love separates him from the love of his own self, from his parent, and by her desire, the desire for his father's compassion is led astray. She strips him of shame, as of garments, and she enslaves him to the servitude of iniquity, which is the work of the firstborn. The works of slaves he performs, a free man with the harlot, and with the beasts he toils in labors and in excess. Without mercy, the evil one works in him, the exile, and he is not weary of his own degradation, which is wanton and foul. As a commoner, he also bears the burden of his own humiliation, and he does not discern or know how he is afflicted and for what he labors.

as one who is sunk in the mire, his limbs were trembling, and he was not aware of the heaviness of his grievous toil. As one drunk with wine, his heart was agitated by the disturbances, and he did not perceive the drunkenness of the folly of his soul. Like a dead man he lay in the iniquity of the folly of his soul, and he heaped up for himself a pile of pains and was not aware. He was scattered and dissolved entirely in disturbances, and there remained in him no place for life and for health. He sank and was silenced in the grievous pain that pursued him, until nature called out to him in silence and spoke with him. Like a swine that nature had weaned from its fatness, and it withdrew from silence and saw its own standing, that it was wallowing in iniquity. He saw that his body and his soul were scattered in the filth of iniquity, and he grieved and was troubled over his loss, which was without remedy. He wailed and wept with a voice of lamentations and groanings, and he said to himself, "Where are the passions that were in me, the fat one? Where is my mind, the foundation of the wisdom of fatness, that I was deaf and was not discerned in the madness of your soul? Where is my thought, the life of the wakeful ones, the watchers of every hour, who fell upon the troops and plundered your wealth, and you did not grieve nor perceive? Where is your presence, the body that governs the senses, that the course of your swiftness was nullified and you fell into the pit? Where are you, soul, the spring that gives life to the body, that the streams of your wisdom are cut off and the channel of your eloquence is dried up?

Where is he?" asks the dead man who died in iniquity, "In the house of the living am I, or in the house of the dead? I do not know." With great suffering he was troubled over his possessions, and he began to cry out against the iniquity of his neighbor and to lament his wealth. "Oh, from iniquity," the bitter sinner cried out, "that in the market of my secrets and my deeds, laughter is made in the house of my creditors. Oh, from the drunkenness that is drunk and makes drunk, that clings to me, that my deeds are drunken and shameful before the eyes of the beholders. Oh, from the defilement that defiles all and defiles everything, that defiles my limbs by the filth of his drunkennesses. Oh, how bitter is the work of iniquity and heavy its burden, and vain are the labors of the one who toils with his shame. Oh, how blind is ignorance and evil its filth, that it blinds the whole man from his duty. Ignorance, you have made me blind and lacking in understanding, and it is she who has cast me away from the wealth that I received from my father's house. She has stripped me of my courses and of my cry, and behold, I live on the scattered food of carob pods. How many hired hands earn a living in my father's house, and I here, for my hunger, am lost without knowledge. How many eat from the abundance of my father's table, and I am in need of a morsel and do not feel shame. I will arise and go to that father who is mine and mine and of all, and I will say, 'I have sinned against heaven and before your face.'

I sinned," he said, "and I did not confess in a small matter but in a great one. I tasted your love and scattered the wealth of your sweetness. I sinned," he said to him, "and it is not fitting that the one who bore you be called my father. Now make me like hired servants and let me live by your grace." These words the prodigal son spoke with himself, and he began to drive away the thoughts of his soul toward his parent. Anger and love filled his heart as he drove: anger terrified, and love urged him to hasten and ask. Anger rehearsed his faults to him from the beginning, and his father's compassion urged him not to be delayed. The compassion of love was much better than anger, and it seized his hands and strengthened his limbs so that he would not be shaken. The lost one turned back on the road, departing from his father's house, and he set his mind on the way of repentance for the completion of his journey. His friends saw him as he drove toward the appointed place of the demon, and they blocked his path from the beginning of his journey. He saw that sign which he had seen until his departure, and he changed his path and met his father lovingly. He saw him tattered and worn and wasted by the labors of iniquity, and he grieved over his lowliness and his humiliation in the house of memories. He saw him delighting in the companionships that the evil one had placed in him, and he pitied him with compassion and washed from him the filth of iniquity. He saw him defiling his body and his soul with abominations, and he rejoiced over all the pure deaths of the mystery of forgiveness.

He saw the stammerer's hesitation in the words of his mouth, and he began to interpret the sounds of the fullness of the heart's depth. "This son of mine was dead," he said, "who was nourished by the living and the fat, and the lamb that was lost from the flock—and behold, I have found it." The shepherd's thought heard the voice of the hope that his father proclaimed, and he began to converse humbly with his parent. He heard that there is hope of life from the death that died in sin, and he began to calm the blood of his members. "My father, I have sinned and erred greatly, without measure, and I am not worthy to be called by the name of heir before my standing. It is not fitting for one who is not free to bear the name of sons, and it is not lawful for a servant to do evil for his liberation. It is not fitting for the soul to taste the freedom of the soul, nor for a commoner to take the scepter of authority. I am much smaller than what is fitting for an heir and a son, and I am not sufficient to receive a rank without death. Give me that I may serve for the bread of the day like a hireling, and I will take a portion with the hired servants of your house. And if I am not able to be hired and to serve and to take wages, let it be enough for me to take alms in charity like a beggar. For I know that I have sinned greatly beyond the order, and I am not sufficient for the recompense of the debt of my sins. I do not forget that my folly is greater than forgiveness, and the sea of my errors is small compared to the wounds of my standing.

There is no longer any medicine that can heal the difficulty of his pains, except the mercy of the father who begot him by the work of his hands. With these sounds he was weeping for the death of his soul, and he did not cease from the lamentations over his transgressions. The great mourner made over his iniquity as over a dead man, and with his sighs he wept for his sin piteously. A great weeping filled his mouth together with his thought, and tears of suffering were flowing from his eyes. With the voice of his sighs he terrified his offspring, and the groans of the height sent forth toward him a cry and the mercies of the flesh for his salvation. "Cease, sinner," he cried to him, "mercy," and he did not cease. "Behold, your father has commanded that the bond of your debts be loosed. Cease, do not weep and laugh, you and your offspring, for behold, your father also grieved and was troubled over your sighs." He saw his offspring, that the mercies of his salvation had not sufficed, and he himself in his station went out and added that he should desist from weeping. "Desist, do not weep over the loss of former things, for there is in your father's house great wealth that cannot be exhausted. Desist, do not be troubled over transgressions that are not of your knowing, for iniquity has grown and is considered as nothing to me that I should be grieved by it." For he knew that the measure of the penalty would see the end, and it was clear to me that it was about to destroy the wealth that I had taken.

He saw your going out with your departure and your release, and I was looking at you when you entered and when you repented. With you, the mercies of your brother went out to the house of memories, and they desired your kingdom that you might reach the end of your father’s house. Draw near, be comforted like an heir from your wanderings, and take the signs and lead your own wisely. Then his father commanded the elders concerning his exaltation, that they should crown him with the name and rank of the name of his begetter. They brought out a stole whose threads were mercies, and he was clothed in it, and he knew every shame from the beauty of what he was. They placed for him the signet ring of his father’s nature, which is truer than all, so that servants and free men might see and be amazed at his rank. The pure truth that cannot be deceived bore his feet, and it trampled the head of the evil one who scattered his wanderings. They also killed the bull in which he was comforted, and his mother, and the basket that gave him food from carobs was put to shame. He fulfilled the words of his father according to his command, and servants and free men began to rejoice on the day of his release. But his elder brother was not there, for he was in the village and had performed his father’s work. His younger brother also came on the day his brother was released, and he saw that a great feast was prepared on the day of his release.

How much more worthy is the brother who saw the release of his brother! He became angry and returned to his service, and did not wish to enter. But his father heard and went out to meet him, seeking from him, as he went out to meet his brother with love and mercy. Do not think that your brother returned to his father's house, and do not forget the partnership of the day of his release. That one also returned to his begetter for the sake of the one who had sinned, and showed his love, how precious the will of his father is. Behold, how long I have been serving you with the service of slaves, and from nothing have I been honored that I might see my relatives. For this one who flew, your house is a house of olives; now that he has returned, you have killed the ox that is not equal. Do not think that everything of mine is yours; it is the work of his begetter, and you are master over my courses like an elder. For one day it would have been fitting for you to rejoice and praise that your dead brother returned and was healed from his youth. How much more worthy is that one also to his good father than his brother, in that he was troubled that he might sin against the erring one who returned. Great distress he suffered from his children, that gentle one, and without order he endured the difficulty of their thoughts. Both of them are worthy without equality of their deeds: one in sin and one in the pursuit of the remission of iniquity. One distressed him in the loss of his life and the dissipation of his possessions, and the other until he came to receive the confession of thought.

Gently he bore the image of a knower, and taught the image of him who was astonished at him and purchased life. Now that the story is complete, which was depicted mysteriously, he sought to reveal the power that conceals within his words. He sought to show what that is which is written concerning the prodigal, who was thought to have escaped and gone to his father's house. The mystery of sins is depicted in the younger son, and in his repentance and in his service in the house of strangers, the dens of demons are indicated. By his distant departure from God, and by his return, the wide gate of righteousness is opened. By the persuasion of his words, which he used to reconcile himself with the hired men, it is a separation that suits itself to those of sins. The hired men, moreover, are not initiates who believed alone, nor did they participate in the mystery of the spiritual birth. It is again that which he said, "It is not fitting that I should be one who blesses," that was the ordinance that judges well his actions. The father who went out to meet his son and changed his course—mercy it was that judges all who are sinful. By that which he went out and embraced and kissed him lovingly, he shows how much he rejoiced that his son had returned to his side. The beautiful garment that clothed his body and covered his hair—it is the baptism that covers the wicked and gives freedoms. The keys are the fear of life without death, which gives spirit to the children who have received the name of daughters.

The ox of the fatted calf is a great mystery of the body and blood, which the shepherd sacrificed to the world with his greatness. And beautifully the ox of the fatted calf for the sacrifice of his body, which was nourished by the food of the spirit and the drink of wine. Even that which killed him on the day the son returned from his error is the love for the race that cannot be described. With the voice of the herald, my son was dead and returned to life. He taught us how to rejoice in repentance. And that he forgave his son who had wronged him, that he might sin against the lost ones, a vessel to offer to the one who is angry at the forgiveness of iniquity. Not the righteous are deceived there at that time, but the one who here wronged the mercies of sinners. Before the test, he first examines that which is future, whether there is one who is angry from losses and changes his nature. The two appear by means of the daughter of the voice of the elder, the priest who is wearied in the service of truth and is not troubled. For in the city was the one who was troubled, written in the flesh, while he shows us that the priest was wearied at all times. The city is a mystery of the service of spiritual life, and like the likeness of earthly ones, it explains the higher. The lot which is said that his father did not give him to rejoice in, to limit and restrain him from the practice of debauchery. The lot shows the iniquity of the one who errs and leads to evil, in that even the lots all shine outside of the flock.

The fatted calf grew fat on its pasture, and the darkness of its belly became like a serpent, and it wallows in the mire, darkening the soul. The love of nature is that which kindled before the sacrifices, and it seeks its own as if it were a spiritual debtor. For nature loves its own as if it were a landowner, and as if in a garment it casts the house of the two, of body and spirit. From the sacrifices of the desire of the bodies, which were not his father, he acknowledged the wealth of the spirit that was delighted in him. Everything of mine is yours, he said to his son, while making known to you that the blessed goods of his are his own. In the parable he shapes all of nature in the form of an image, and he places his sign within the palace of the high [serpent] of the world. In the order of the senses he mounted the world upon his two children, and his good and evil ones contended to disturb his love. The younger son cast sins to repentance, and the elder hardened the hearts of the envious in the reward of wages. He called the seekers and heirs to all the lords of natures, and he is for you the father, the great wonder that cannot be spoken. O how great from the history of the language, which establishes all, the wise one brings his sign to the fire. O the lamentation of the sons of the earth, how exalted is he who is worthy to be heir and son of his establishment. O how and where is the lord of this being, who is for you the father and the living heirs of his divinity.

The great love, unutterable, wrought against the nature, and the mouth of all that was done is that which says, "How much is it?" As the mouth of the word that came to be, the greatness of his love which the worshippers from all creatures perform with him. How can the debt of love be paid, when even the spirits rejoiced at their repentance? Thus the angels of heaven rejoiced over the sinner who repents and is reconciled to his folly. And if the angels rejoice with us at our repentance, how severe is the pursuit of that one who judges mercies? If the spirits thirst to see us reconciled, how tightly bound are the guilty who deny their brother? Therefore the angels of heaven rejoice that they live, and woe to you, O wretched one, that you sin, for mercies do not bring the fire to an end. Therefore the natures, not feeling, felt in the [...] of your ways, and woe to you, O one who remains in Sheol without [...] seeing. Therefore, O one who is enraged, when will you reign as one, and you yourself are angry at that which runs according to its will? Therefore, even that one who is struck down, who is immersed in the hour of iniquity, at the sound of forgiveness, the doors before him open to seek words. The story of the erring one: my search to seek the power of the parables, and in his mouth the thoughts concerning teaching are opened. The story of the fugitive: that it be read in the book of his writings, and he learn the power that is hidden in the words that the spirit interprets.

With him I went out when he was going out from his father's house, and I went with him to see the manner of his pursuit of his begetting. I saw him flying great expenses in the house of taverns, and again I was perplexed at the folly of his going to the place of forgiveness. I heard him mounting condemned voices upon his foolishness, and I thought much about the wickedness of my standing which resembles his own. I heard it said that a man is not worthy of the name of heirs, and I seized the laughter that I cast upon the path of dissipation of his expenses. Much does the way of my actions resemble that of him who pursues it, and the shortness of life I also poured out in the likeness of his own. With that foolish one who was to squander with him I also labored, and in the desolations of the steps of life I lived like him. Unknowingness made me also hidden from compassion, just as he also lost his own without awareness. The compassion of his brother brought him to his way on the day of his end, and they persuaded on my behalf before the judge who chooses all. The voice that said, "My son was dead and returned to life," made me worthy to hear that the sinner should receive forgiveness. The hand that spread over his nakedness a stole of glory covered the face that was not spread out for the sight of beholders. The sign that he placed, the fear of life like a bridle, strengthened my limbs to ascend to the kingdom of life. The mouth that calmed the anger of his brother that was without compassion struck the wickedness of the doorkeeper who offers with his thoughts.

The wakeful ones who rejoiced on the day of his return and praised his father. They were the intercessors for my guilt before the justice of the church. The sign of the cross imprinted his path and the return of his life. It is engraved on my mind, the image of the mystery that gives life. O my Lord, may I be a companion in the land of the dead of the living one, and may I complete the pursuit of that which was spoken at the end of her story. O my Lord, may I be with him in the goodness of the covenant of your love, and may I receive mercy in the judgment as it was received.