ASCENSION - GOING HOME

   THE PRODIGAL SON, REMBRANDT.  

1. "It is for your good that I am going away".  Jesus left few traces of himself on earth. He wrote no books or even pamphlets. A wanderer, he left no home or even belongings that could be enshrined in a museum. He did not marry, settle down, and begin a dynasty. We would, in fact, know nothing about Him except for the traces He left in human beings. That was His design. The law and the prophets had focused like a beam of light on the One who was to come, and now that light, as if hitting a prism, would fracture and shoot out in a human spectrum of waves and colors.
The disciples would find soon what Jesus had meant by "for your good". As Augustine put it, "You ascended from before our eyes, and we turned back grieving, only to find You in our hearts".

2. I am touching here the mystery that Jesus himself became the prodigal son for our sake. He left the house of His heavenly Father, came  to a foreign country, gave away all that He had, and returned through His Cross to His Father's home. All of this He did, not as a rebellious son, but as the obedient son, sent out to bring home all the lost children of God. Jesus, who told the story to those who criticized Him for associating with sinners, Himself lived the long and painful journey that He describes.
Look of the painting - isn't the broken young man kneeling before his father the "lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world"? Isn't he the innocent one who became sin for us? Isn't he the one who didn't "cling to his equality with God", but "became as human beings are"? Isn't he the sinless Son of God who cried out on the cross:"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me"? Jesus is the prodigal son of the prodigal Father who gave away everything the Father had entrusted to Him so that I could become like Him and return with Him to his Father's home.
He became flesh, lived among us, and made us part of His fulness... (Henry J.M. Nouwen).

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