A
lot of people hear the story of the prodigal son and find its conclusion confusing. Why is the prodigal son being rewarded? Or at any rate, being celebrated more than his brother, who remained loyal to his father? The father's behavior seems very "human" in his way of acting, rather than divine. Why can he not see that his commendations are misplaced?
Those who remain loyal live out their reward every day. For the loyal son, all his father owns is his. The fatted calf was not slaughtered for him, but in every other way he was cared for -- and the crucial thing here is that virtue is its own reward. Virtue does not need momentous celebration, because virtue is not momentous.
What is momentous is the dead being returned to life. The separation of the prodigal son, as it is with sinners from God, is traumatic; a terrible state of affairs. The lost one foolishly spends all his inheritance, and reaps the terrible reward. Such a one could disappear forever, and be lost to his father. That he finds it in himself to return in shame, humbly, to beg his father's forgiveness, is the greatest of all possible moments. That which was lost is found; he who stood on the razor's edge of destruction has been saved.
It must be thus that the fatted calf is slaughtered. This is why we have fatted calves in the first place. We must rejoice upon the penance of sinners, for great work is being done within them. Of course the virtuous who stay are laudable, but theirs is a different order. This reaching out, and exhultation at those who return, is echoed over and over again in the New Testament. This is not a "human" irrationality, but the secret of the Divine Will.