By St. John Maximovitch
"And the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the portion of goods that fall to me'" (Luke 15:11-32).
The Parable of the Prodigal Son is a most instructive lesson for youth. We
see in the prodigal son the true character of flighty youth:
light-minded, thoughtless, thirsting for independence; in short,
everything that usually distinguishes the majority of youths.
The
younger son grew up in his parents’ house. On reaching adolescence, he
already began to imagine that life at home was too restrictive. It
seemed unpleasant to him to live under his father’s rule and his
mother’s watchful eye.
He
wanted to imitate his comrades, who had given themselves up to the
pleasures of the world. “I am the heir of a rich estate. Would it not be
better,” he reasoned, “if I received my inheritance now? I could manage
my wealth differently than my father does.” Thus the light-minded youth
was carried away by the deceitful glitter of the world’s pleasures and
decided to throw off the yoke of obedience and to depart from his
parents’ home.
Are
not many inspired by similar impulses today, and, while they may not
leave their parents’ home, do they not depart from the home of their
Heavenly Father, that is, from obedience to the Holy Church?
The
yoke of Christ seems difficult for immature minds, and His commandments
burdensome. They think that it is not really necessary to keep that
which God and His Holy Church command us. To them it seems possible to
serve God and the world at the same time.
They
say, “We are already strong enough to withstand destructive temptations
and seductions. We can hold onto the truth and sound teachings by
ourselves. Allow us to perfect our minds through acquiring many kinds of
knowledge. Let us strengthen our wills ourselves amid temptations and
seductions. Through experience our senses will become convinced of the
vileness of vice!” Are such desires any better than the ill-considered
request of the younger son to his father, “Father, give me the portion
of goods that fall to me?”
And
so, a light-minded youth ceases to heed the commandments and
admonitions of the Holy Church. He ceases to study the word of God and
the teachings of the Holy Fathers, and listens intently to the
sophistries of those who are falsely-called teachers, and in these
pursuits he kills the best hours of his life. He goes to church less
frequently or stands there inattentively, distracted. He does not find
the opportunity to devote himself to piety and to exercise himself in
the virtues, because he spends so much time attending shows, public
entertainments, etc.
In a word, with each day he gives himself up more and more to the world, and, finally, he goes off to “a far country.”
What
is the result of such an estrangement from the Holy Church? It is the
same as the result of the prodigal son’s leaving his parents’ house.
Light-minded youths very quickly waste their excellent energies and
talents of soul and body, ruining for time and eternity all the good
they have done. Meanwhile, there appears “a mighty famine in that land”:
emptiness and dissatisfaction — the inevitable result of wild
pleasures.
A
thirst for enjoyments appears, which intensifies with the gratifying of
wanton passions, and finally becomes insatiable. It often happens that
the unfortunate lover of the world, in order to gratify his passions,
resorts to base and shameful pursuits, which do not bring him to his
senses like the prodigal son and do not return him to the path of
salvation, but complete his ruin, both temporal and eternal!
