Lesson – Genesis xxvii. 5‒40
In those days, Rebecca said to her son Jacob: “I heard your father talking with Esau your brother, and saying to him, ‘Bring me of your hunting, and make me meats that I may eat, and bless you in the sight of the Lord before I die.’ Now, therefore, my son, follow my counsel and go your way to your flock, bring me two kids of the best, that I may make of them meat for your father, such as he gladly eats; which when you have brought in, and he has eaten, he may bless you before he dies.” And he answered her: “You know that Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am smooth. If my father feels me and perceives it, I fear lest he will think I would have mocked him, and I will bring on me a curse instead of a blessing.” And his mother said to him: “On me be this curse, my son; only hear you my voice, and go, fetch me the things which I have said.” He went, and brought, and gave them to his mother. She dressed meat such as she knew his father liked. And she put on him very good garments of Esau, which she had at home with her; and the little skins of the kids she put about his hands and covered the bare of his neck. And she gave him the savoury meat, and delivered him bread that she had baked. Which when he had carried in, he said: “My father?” But he answered: “I hear; who are you my son?” And Jacob said: “I am Esau your first-born; I have done as you commanded me; arise, sit, and eat of my venison that your soul may bless me. And Isaac said to his son: “How could you find it so quickly, my son?” He answered: “It was the will of God that what I sought came quickly in my way.” And Isaac said: “Come here, that I may feel you my son, and may prove whether you are my son Esau or not.” He came near to his father, and when he had felt him Isaac said: “The voice, indeed is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” And he knew him not, because his hairy hands made him like the elder. Then blessing him, he said: “Are you my son Esau?” He answered: “I am.” Then he said: “Bring me the meats of your hunting, my son, that my soul may bless you.” And when they were brought and he had eaten, he offered him wine also, which after he had drunk, he said to him: “Come near me, and give me a kiss, my son.” He came near, and kissed him. And immediately as he smelled the fragrant smell of his garments, blessing him, he said: “Behold the smell of my son is as the smell of a plentiful field, which the Lord has blessed. God give you of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, abundance of corn and wine. And let peoples serve you, and tribes worship you; be lord of your brethren, and let your mother’s children bow down before you. Cursed be he that curses you, and let him that blesses you be filled with blessings.” Isaac had scarce ended his words when Jacob having now gone out abroad, Esau came and brought into his father meats made of what he had taken in hunting, saying: “Arise, my father, and eat of your son’s venison that your soul may bless me.” And Isaac said to him: “Why! Who are you?” He answered: “I am your first-born son Esau.” Isaac was struck with fear, and astonished exceedingly, and wondering beyond what can be believed, said: “Who is he that even now brought me venison that he has taken, and I ate of all before you earned? and I have blessed him, and he will be blessed.” Esau having heard his father’s words, roared out with a great cry, and being in a consternation said: “Bless me also, my father.” And he said: “Your brother came deceitfully and got your blessing.” But he said again: “Rightly is his name called Jacob, for he has supplanted me, lo! This second time, my first birthright he took away before, and now this second time he has stolen away my blessing.” And again he said to his father: “Have you not reserved me also a blessing?” Isaac answered: “I have appointed him your lord, and have made all his brethren his servants: I have established him with corn and oil, and after this, what shall I do more for you, my son?” And Esau said to him: “Have you only one blessing, father? I beseech you, bless me also.” And when he wept with a loud cry, Isaac being moved, said to him: “In the fat of the earth, and in the dew of heaven from above, will your blessing be.”Thanks be to God.
Gospel – Luke xv. 11‒32
At that time, Jesus spoke to the Scribes and Pharisees this parable: “A certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father: ‘Father, give me the portion of substance that falls to me.’ And he divided to them his substance. And not many days after, the younger son, gathering all together, went abroad into a far country and there wasted his substance with living riotously. And after he had spent all there came a mighty famine in that country, and he began to be in want. And he went and cleaved to one of the citizens of that country. And he sent him into his farm to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks the swine did eat, and no man gave to him. And returning to himself he said: How many hired servants in my father’s house abound with bread, and I here perish with hunger! I will arise, and will go to my father, and say to him: ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before you. I am not now worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.’ And rising up, he came to his father. And when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and running to him fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said to him: ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before you. I am not now worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants: ‘Bring forth quickly the first robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring here the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry, because this my son was dead and has now come to life again, was lost, and is found.’ And they began to be merry. Now his eldest son was in the field, and when he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing, and he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. And he said to him: ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe.’ And he was angry and would not go in. His father therefore coming out began to entreat him. And he answering, said to his father: ‘Behold, for so many years do I serve you, and I have never transgressed your commandment, and yet you have never given me a kid to make merry with my friends. But as soon as this your son has come, who has devoured his substance with harlots, you have killed for him the fatted calf.’ But he said to him: ‘Son, you are always with me, and all I have is yours. But it was fit that we should make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost, and is found.’”Praise be to you, O Christ.
Saint Ambrose of Milan:
You see how that the heavenly goods are given to such as seek them. Neither ought you to think the father to blame because he gave to his younger son. In the kingdom of God there is no age of weakness, neither does faith wax infirm with years. He, surely, who asked, deemed himself of sufficient age. And would that he had not left his father! then had he been ignorant of the obstacle of his age! But after that he had left his father’s house and had gone into a far country, he began to be in want. Well is he said to have wasted his substance, who has cut himself off from the Church!
He took his journey into a far country. No man can go further than to abandon his own better self, to leave, not his country, but his morals and, as it were, in an hideous fever of lust after the world, to divorce himself from the ties that bind him to holy things. Yes, he that turns his back on Christ, banishes himself from his Fatherland and becomes a citizen of the world. But we “are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God,” since we “who sometimes were afar off, are made near by the Blood of Christ” (Ephesians ii. 19, 13). Let us not envy the pleasures of them who remain in the far country. We too have once been there, but, as says Isaias, “they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them has the light shined” (ix. 2.). And that far country is the land of the shadow of death.
But we to whom the Lord Christ is the breath of life, are alive under the shadow of Christ. And therefore it is that the Church says: “I sat down under His shadow with great delight” (Canticles ii. 3). The prodigal son by riotous living wasted all the gifts of nature. Take warning, you who are made in the image and likeness of God, lest you waste the same by brutish wallowing. You are the work of God; say not “to a stock: You are my father,” (Jeremias ii. 27), lest you grow into the likeness of a stock, as it is written: “hey that make them are like them” (Psalm cxiii. 16).
