Daily Gospel Reflection for March 7, 2026

How can I begin to write just 300 words about the Prodigal Son, one of the most profoundly beautiful stories in the Gospels? The word that keeps returning to me in this cycle of the son’s choices is the paradox of human freedom.

 

In the downward arc of the story, this young son set off to a distant country, freely “squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation,” “freely spent everything,” and then had to work at the degrading task of tending to swine, which were understood by the prevailing culture to be unclean. This man sank so low that he longed to eat from the pods of the swine. A series of freely made, sinful choices, led this beloved son to the lowest of places.

 

Rising from this place of utter defilement entailed one act of freedom. In the upward arc of redemption, this beloved son freely made a choice to abandon his horrible choices and return to the outstretched arms of his father, who delighted in him.

 

Our Father delights in us, too. No matter the sins of our past or our shortcomings, our Father extends His love and mercy to us. We just have to exercise our freedom and accept the gift. Too often, guilt or shame causes people to believe that they are not worthy of love. We hear this in the son’s words: “I no longer deserve to be called your son.” None of us deserves the way that God loves us: self-emptying, completely, eternally. But that is how God desires to love us.