Rochelle Joy V.

Cruz Religion
10 – Isaiah Mr. Adriane Vergara
The Mercy of God

The parable that I read is The Parable of the Prodigal Son but I think the title is not
suitable for the story, it should be “The Parable of the Forgiving Father” because the father's
mercy is the focus of the story and he is high-priority figure. This parable makes me realize that
someone should only get what he or she deserves. The son who utterly wastes his inheritance
deserves to live with the consequences of that decision. He deserves to live in poverty, to feed
the pigs, and to be hungry. He was given what he needed to have a comfortable life, but he
deliberately chose to waste it rather than use it to honor his family and provide it for himself. We
can say that the reason the son is so hesitant to go to his father and he even beg his father to be
his servant is he knows that he didn’t deserve to have a comfortable life. And yet, the father
forgives and welcome his son into their home instead of reaping the consequences of his
decision. Not only that, the father throws a party instead of being embarrass and angry for what
he did. This shows how unconditional the father’s love really is.

I think this parable point out how merciful the God is. The father in the story
represents the God. The prodigal son and the other brother who resents the fact that his younger
brother doesn’t get what he deserves, represent us. Whatever what we do, God will always
forgive us. He will always give us a chance to repent, born again and start a new life. As what
stated in the parable, after the son has repented and committed himself to start a new life, the
father ordered the servant to bring the best robe and put it to his son. It is a sign that son and to
everyone else that something important had taken place. He is the same old son but now he is the
new son who alive again. And by accepting the robe, it is a sign of settlement between the
repentant son and the forgiving father. The son can’t go back to his old self because by accepting
the robe he accepts the responsibility and start a new life.

We are all sons and daughters of God and we know that his forgiveness is complete.
We should also know that if today we are the perfect and resentful elder brother, then we don’t
need the robe that a sign of new life. The robe is for those people who need to repent. We
should not wait for the day that we will need the robe. But if we are the repentant son and we
already wear the robe, we should do our best to become a good son or daughter of God and do
our best to not commit a sin again in our new life. Even if God is merciful, we should not abuse
it and repeatedly wear the robe.

We are all prodigal sons and daughters. But like the prodigal son, we should be
willing to admit our sins and start a new life. We should accept the responsibility to live with the
covenant we make with God. If we choose to do this, the God will always walk with us.