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 grat...
