The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming

by Henri J.M. Nouwen

Life in community does not keep the darkness away. To the contrary. It seems that the light that attracted me to L’Arche also made me conscious of the darkness in myself.

The community does not need yet another younger or elder son, whether converted or not, but a father who lives with outstretched hands, always desiring to let them rest on the shoulders of his returning children.

True fatherhood is sharing the poverty of God’s non-demanding love.

He led me from the kneeling, disheveled young son to the standing, bent-over old father, from the place of being blessed to the place of blessing.

As I look at my own aging hands, I know that they have been given to me to stretch out toward all who suffer, to rest upon the shoulders of all who come, and to offer the blessing that emerges from the immensity of God’s love.