"I no longer deserve to be called your son"

Thus says the famous prodigal son in today’s Gospel (Luke 15:1-3, 11-32).

“I no longer deserve to be called your son.”

Thus we ourselves may also say to God.

The truth be told, of course, we by ourselves never deserved to be called sons or daughters of God.

Although God made us in His image, that did not make us fully His children. We are His creatures and His reflection – nothing more.

If we follow His will, we are His servants – nothing more.

But we have not always followed His will and even now may not be faithful in all things. Thus we are poor servants and poor reflections of God.

Through baptism into Christ, however, we are undeservedly given a share in His Sonship. Thus Saint John once wrote (1 John 3:1),

See what love the Father has bestowed on us
that we may be called the children of God.
Yet so we are.

Yet, tragically, we still sin and thus we may say

I no longer deserve to be called Your son.

But God is rich in mercy and through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ bestows on us all the graces we need for true repentance, true conversion, full forgiveness, and the fullness of eternal life and happiness.

No matter what we have done, no matter how stuck in sin we may think we are, may we turn to God through Christ so that He may say in the presence of the Saints,

We must celebrate and rejoice,
because your brother was dead
and has come to life again;
he was lost
and has been found.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, be merciful to me – a sinner.