Luke 15:11 — Community Reflections

LUKE 15:11 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“And he said, A certain man had two sons:”

Jesus continued: there was a man who had two sons — the Prodigal Son (or, more precisely, the story of the father and his two sons) is the chapter's culmination and one of the most celebrated parables in world literature. A man who had two sons: the two sons will represent two postures toward the father — the younger's rebellion and the elder's resentment.

Church Fathers on Luke 15:11

St. Luke has given three parables successively; the sheep which was lost and found, the piece of silver which was lost and found, the son who was dead and came to life again, in order that invited by a threefold remedy, we might heal our wounds. Christ as the Shepherd bears you on His own body, the Church as the woman seeks for thee, God as the Father receives you, the first, pity, the second, intercession, the third, reconciliation.
Ambrose · 4th century

There is also in the above-mentioned parable a rule of distinction with reference to the characters or dispositions of the sinners. The father receives his penitent son, exercising the freedom of his will, so as to know from whence he had fallen; and the shepherd seeks for the sheep that wanders and knows not how to return, and carries it on his shoulders, comparing to an irrational animal the foolish man, who, taken by another’s guile, had wandered like a sheep. This parable…
Chrysostom · 4th century

But some say that by the elder son is signified Israel according to the flesh, but by the other who left his father, the multitude of the Gentiles.
Cyril of Alexandria · 5th century

Read all 26 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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