The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. Luke
Let us eat and be merry . God, says Euthymius, is said to eat in proof of His joy. “For,” adds S. Jerome (Ep. 146), “there can be no rejoicing if our Father be absent from the feast,” because, says Bede and S. Ambrose, “the food of the Father is our salvation ; the joy of the Father the redemption of our sins.” And according to the Gloss, “The salvation of sinners is the refreshment of God and the saints. Observe also that the calf is slain after that the robe, the ring, and the shoes are provided, to teach us that we must put on the hope of the immortality for which we were created, that we must seal our works with the signet of faith, and preach by the confession of Christ, if we would partake of the heavenly mysteries.”
Ver. 24. — For this my son was dead , and is alive again. He was dead by reason of his sins ; he is alive again because of his repentance.
Ver. 28. — And he was angry , and would not go in. The anger and the murmuring of the elder son is the application of the parable, and is intended to show how justly God rejoices over the conversion of a sinner, and what answer can be given to those who murmur at the consideration shown to those that repent.
“ Hence we learn,” says Euthymius, “that God rejoices so greatly over the return of the prodigal, in order that He may provoke others to jealousy.”
So also Theophylact, Titus, and S. Chrysostom in the Catena ; for it is certain that the righteous do not envy penitent sinners the blessings they enjoy, but rejoice greatly and exult in their happiness.
Hence we are to understand rather by the murmuring of the elder son, the envy of the Pharisees who murmured against Christ because He received sinners. For this was the occasion as well as scope of the parable, as is clear from the opening verses of the chapter. Similarly also the parable applies to the Jews, who hated the Apostles and murmured against them, because they preached the Gospel to the Gentiles. So S. Ambrose says, “The Jews envied the Gentiles the paternal blessing,” and S. Augustine ( Quæst. Evang. ii. 33), “ He is angry now, and will not go in. But when the fulness of the nations shall have entered in, then the father will go forth that all Israel may be saved.” Again S. Ambrose, “He is called the elder because he envied his brother, and envy causes a man very quickly to grow old.”
He heard music and dancing . That is, as S. Augustine explains, “ He heard the Apostles full of the Holy Spirit preaching the Gospel with harmonious voices. He takes one of the prophets to read, and as he searches in it, asks in a manner, why are these feasts in the Church at which he finds himself not present.”
But S. Ambrose says, “ He heard the harmony of the Christian people singing with united voice, and raising sweet sounding strains of joy over the salvation of the sinner. But he stands without, for his evil disposition hinders him from entering in ; ” and the Gloss, “The Church’s symphony is the accord of different ages and varying virtues, whence the chorus and spiritual dance of holy and exultant joy.”
Tropologically, S. Jerome ( Epist . 146) says, “ Daily is this feast kept, daily does the Father receive His Son, for Christ is ever being crucified for them that believe.” See also Salmeron (Tom. vii.).
Therefore came his father out and intreated him. — Symbolically , this signifies that God through the preaching of Christ and His Apostles invited the Pharisees and the unbelieving Jews to enter His Church, and therein to partake of the gospel feast, and share in the joy of the faithful. But they refused the invitation from hatred of Christ crucified, and because they were offended that the Gentiles should believe on Him, and they will remain obstinate in their refusal until the coming of Elias at the end of the world. So S. Augustine bids us “ admire God’s goodness towards His people;” and S. Jerome, “ How kind and how merciful a father ! He asks his son to share in the joy of the household.”
Ver. 29. — And he answering said , Lo , these many years do I serve thee. The Syriac has “servio tibi servitutem” so the Jews were in bondage to the observance of the law.
Neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment. This answer shows the lying arrogance and the ingratitude of the Jews, who boasted of their work done under the law, and forgot the many benefits which God had conferred upon them. They lie when they say they have never transgressed the commandment of God. They transgress often! For, says St Jerome (Ep. 146), “ Is it not a transgression to envy our brother his salvation ? ” With like arrogancy , the Pharisee justifies himself, and despises the Publican. St Luke xviii. 11. But as St Augustine and the Interlinear point out, the Jews did not bow down to idols, as the Gentiles did, and therefore , inasmuch as they worshipped the one true God, and Him alone, in this particular they did not transgress the commandment.
And yet thou never gavest me a kid. The fathers explain this symbolically in many ways.
“ No blood of prophet or priest has delivered us from the Roman yoke, but for the prodigal, i.e., for the Gentiles, for sinners, throughout the whole world, Thy precious blood was shed.” St Jerome (Ep. 146), “Thou hast never, for my sake, ordered a kid, i.e. a sinner who persecuted me, to be slain.” Theophylact.
“Thou, O Christ, hast never given me Thyself for my food, because I accounted Thee as a kid, i.e., as a sinner, and a perverter of the Law.” St Augustine.
“ The Jews demand a kid : the Christians a lamb. For them Barabbas is set free ; for us the lamb is slain.” St Ambrose.
Ver. 30. — This thy son . . . which hath devoured thy living with harlots . The Pharisees accuse God of sin, in preferring the unworthy to the worthy, Gentiles to the Jews, sinners to themselves, as if He had regard to the persons of men ; but their accusation is false. For the Gentiles, though sinners, by their repentance and faith made themselves worthy of the gospel and the grace of Christ ; but the Pharisees, by their pride, envy, and unbelief, showed themselves unworthy of these benefits. Hence they became reprobate, and the Gentiles were chosen in their stead. See S. Matt. xx. 16.
Ver. 31. — And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. “ The law, the prophets, the oracles of God,” says St Jerome. To this we must add, the worship of the one true God, and faith in Him, in the teachings of the Church, and the benefits arising therefrom. For all these blessings, which were lacking to the Gentiles before the coming of Christ, were the possession of God’s people Israel.
The sense is, “Thou, as my son, art at liberty to enjoy all my possessions, as seems to thee good. Thou oughtest not then to envy thy brother, or to take it amiss that out of our common property, I have ordered a calf to be slain, in honour of his return, especially as thou also art invited to the banquet.” St Ambrose. And the Interlinear adds, “ All mine is thine, if so be thou ceasest to envy thy brother,” for, says St Augustine, “ desire obtains nothing without want, charity nothing with want, and when we shall have obtained that blessedness, the higher things will be ours to live upon, equal things ours to have fellowship with, the lower things ours to rule;” and he assigns the reason, “for it is thus that all things are looked upon by perfect and immortal children, that each is the possession of all, and all of each.” Hence there will arise for the blessed hereafter the perfection of mutual charity and love, and the fulness of glory and of bliss.
Ver. 32. — It was meet that we should make merry and be glad. For the most convincing of reasons, because this my son, thy brother, who was dead in trespasses and sins, is now restored to grace and favour, wherefore it behovest thee to take part in our rejoicing, and not to be envious and to murmur against him.
Christ now leaves the Pharisees to apply the parable to themselves. For, says Theophylact, “ It is intended to teach that although we may be just, we must not cast off sinners nor murmur because God receives them;” and again, “The Lord speaks as it were after this manner ; I beseech you who are righteous and free from reproach, that ye murmur not at the salvation of sons, for this prodigal is still a son.”