Mercy or Positivity of Reality
“A man had two sons…” begins the parable of the Prodigal Son. As Peguy wrote, this parable speaks so powerfully to believers and unbelievers alike because it touches the human heart at the very point where the mystery behind our existence is encountered, “a unique point, a secret point, a mysterious point, ‘a’ point of correspondence” that recognizes in the parable the fulfillment of its most daring desires, a “point of sorrow, a point of desolation, a point of hope, a point of pain, a point of restlessness, a scarred point.” The message of this parable grasps us in the heart like the teeth marks of an old faithful dog that will never go away no matter how badly we treat it. No other word of God reaches farther than this parable, so that it accompanies us the farthest we can stray from goodness, staying with us no matter how far we wander, no matter how shamelessly we behave. This parable does not know what shame is. It will never leave us in peace, and for this we are secretly grateful, no matter how far away we go from the mystery at its origin. From it, hope against hope springs always.
A man had two sons. In Rembrandt's painting of this parable, the man embracing his prodigal son has a male hand and a female hand. It is the mystery of the Origin of all fatherhood and motherhood. Those of us who follow Christ will recognize in this Origin the one that Jesus called “the Father.” On that first Easter, on that third day after the death of the Son of Man, the Father showed that neither death nor sin are greater than his love and mercy. That is why we affirm the positivity of reality. This is why we affirm the goodness of life even in the face of death, without fear of being blind to the problems, the betrayals, the moral ambiguities in our lives. This is why we affirm that life is beautiful, that it is worthwhile to work, to struggle, to fight for that truth, that beauty, that goodness, that justice that corresponds to the infinite dignity of each single human being from the first moment of his or her existence until its disappearance into the arms of the mystery that brought us into existence. Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. Everything that exists is good.
—Lorenzo Albacete
