Blessed Schuster’s Daily Thoughts on the Rule: Saturday after the Second Sunday of Lent

Saturday of the 2nd Week of Lent
Station at Ss. Marcellinus and Peter

The Prodigal Son

1. The Station is at the titulus of Ss. Peter and Marcellinus, near the Lateran.

The Gospel reading tells the story of the prodigal son. This may be an allusion to the executioner of the two Martyrs, who later recounted the particulars of their torments to Pope Damasus, when he was still a boy. To meditate on it better, one may divide it into three sections:

a) The prodigal son abandons the father’s house.
b) He is reduced to misery, to acting as keeper of swine.
c) He returns to the father, by whom he is welcomed.

The portion of the patrimony that the runaway lad takes away from home are the different natural gifts, talent, physical strength, social and economic position, etc., which he abuses vivendo luxuriose [living licentiously].

The Cassinese Patriarch [St Benedict] himself also makes reference to this sad spiritual drama. Two cases may present themselves.

A monk loses his vocation: proprio vitio egreditur de monasterio (Rule Ch. 29: ‘who departs from the monastery by his own fault’), thus rendering useless the holy efforts of the abbot and of the brethren to call him back to the way of salvation.

Or instead, the scandalous and obstinate one has demonstrated that he is incorrigible, deserving to be expelled from the community with the due forms of Canon Law. This is the case described in Chapter 27, while in Chapter 62 there is described how one should proceed for the expulsion of priests themselves. It is a terrible thought which Saint Benedict enunciates: non sacerdos, sed rebellio iudicetur [let him be judged not a priest but a rebel].

The Lord too once asked the Apostles: Have I not perhaps chosen you twelve, and among you one is Satan? [John 6:71]

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2. The swine were placed over the prodigal son, since he had been dedicated to their service, and for the beasts there were husks, but not for the man.

It was nonetheless fortunate; because thus was verified what is written: Homo in honore cum esset non intellexit; comparatus est iumentis insipientibus, et similis factus est illis. (Ps. 48: ‘Man, being in honour, did not understand. He became equal to the irrational beasts and was reduced to their like.’) Thus he returned to himself.

When the devils asked the Lord not to send their entire legion into the abyss, they asked that at least He would permit them to enter into a herd of swine. They entered, and the infuriated swine all hurled themselves into the sea. In the today’s world, too, the Lord permits the demons to enter into the swine. Thus are explained so many mysteries of iniquity.

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3. Divine grace seizes that fugitive youth almost by the hair, and leads him back home, as once Saint Maurus  laid at the feet of Saint Benedict the little boy Placid, all soaked as he was, just drawn out of the Neronian lake.

The father, full of pity, welcomes the prodigal, casting himself on his neck and mixing his own tears with those of the son.

Saint Benedict wants the abbot to do likewise, and in Chapter 29 of the Rule he arranges that for a full three times, when the prodigal son returns, he should be received and welcomed in the community.

The reason? ‘The abbot ought to employ a great solicitude, using every means and effort, and even running, so that none of the souls entrusted to him may be lost.’ (Rule, Ch. 27)

Clement of Alexandria tells the story of St John the Evangelist, who once ran in pursuit of a young man, previously converted by him, who afterwards, due to the lack of care by the bishop to whom he had entrusted him, had distanced himself from the Church.