{"id":12,"date":"2020-03-16T20:42:03","date_gmt":"2020-03-16T20:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/assumption.us\/aa-news\/lost-in-place\/"},"modified":"2023-02-20T08:05:09","modified_gmt":"2023-02-20T13:05:09","slug":"lost-in-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/assumption.us\/aa-news\/lost-in-place\/","title":{"rendered":"Lost in place"},"content":{"rendered":"<div\n        class=\"\n          image-block-outer-wrapper\n          layout-caption-below\n          design-layout-inline\n          combination-animation-none\n          individual-animation-none\n          individual-text-animation-none\n        \"\n        data-test=\"image-block-inline-outer-wrapper\"\n    ><\/p>\n<figure\n            class=\"\n              sqs-block-image-figure\n              intrinsic\n            \"\n            style=\"max-width:1200px;\"\n        ><\/p>\n<div\n              \n              \n              class=\"image-block-wrapper\"\n              data-animation-role=\"image\"\n              \n  \n\n          ><\/p>\n<div class=\"sqs-image-shape-container-element\n              \n          \n        \n              has-aspect-ratio\n            \" style=\"\n                position: relative;\n                \n                  padding-bottom:130.5%;\n                \n                overflow: hidden;\n              \"\n              ><\/p>\n<p>                  <noscript><img src=\"https:\/\/assumption.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/RembrandtProdigalSon.jpg\" alt=\"Rembrandt\u2019s The Return of the&amp;nbsp;Prodigal Son, c. 1661\u20131669\" \/><\/noscript><img class=\"thumb-image\" src=\"https:\/\/assumption.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/RembrandtProdigalSon.jpg\" data-image=\"https:\/\/assumption.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/RembrandtProdigalSon.jpg\" data-image-dimensions=\"1200x1566\" data-image-focal-point=\"0.5,0.5\" alt=\"Rembrandt\u2019s The Return of the&amp;nbsp;Prodigal Son, c. 1661\u20131669\" data-load=\"false\" data-image-id=\"5e6fe43e6f5d5e3c177e38c5\" data-type=\"image\" \/><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div><figcaption class=\"image-caption-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-caption\">\n<p style=\"text-align:center;white-space:pre-wrap;\" class=\"\">Rembrandt\u2019s <em>The Return of the&nbsp;Prodigal Son<\/em>, c. 1661\u20131669<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">The longest of the three parables on God\u2019s mercy in chapter 15 of Luke\u2019s Gospel bears the traditional title of The Prodigal Son, named after the younger son who wasted his inheritance in a foreign land.&nbsp;Since the father is the central figure in the story, the parable has sometimes been re-named after the Prodigal Father, who so lavishly shows his love and mercy to his rebellious younger son.<\/p>\n<p>A little more provocatively, my favorite title is the parable of the two lost sons.&nbsp;This presupposes, of course, that it is possible to be lost \u201cin place.\u201d The elder son is none too pleased to discover a party being thrown for \u201cthat son of yours.\u201d Contrasting his own fidelity to the latter\u2019s promiscuous ways, he stews in his own indignation. One is never given to know whether he is persuaded by the father\u2019s pleading, but as it stands, the elder son is actually in more peril than his brother, who learns by hard experience how much he depends on the father\u2019s love and forgiveness.&nbsp;The younger son has the ironic advantage of not having any good deeds to put between himself and his father.&nbsp;On that account, he finds himself in a position to better understand where he really stands vis-\u00e0-vis his father.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">One often hears a chorus of sympathy for the elder son, much like the cheering section for Martha in that other episode in Luke\u2019s Gospel. But let\u2019s beware of our sympathies.&nbsp;What may look like a \u201craw deal\u201d according to our standards of judgment is the two edged sword that cuts away at our \u201call too human\u201d perspectives.&nbsp; It is not by any merit of ours that God turns his face toward us.&nbsp;The sooner we get that into our thick skulls the better. Better for our relations across the board &#8211; with our troublesome neighbor, with our prideful selves and with our infinitely loving God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rembrandt\u2019s The Return of the&nbsp;Prodigal Son, c. 1661\u20131669 The longest of the three parables on God\u2019s mercy in chapter 15 of Luke\u2019s Gospel bears the traditional title of The Prodigal Son, named after the younger son who wasted his inheritance in a foreign land.&nbsp;Since the father is the central figure in the story, the parable&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/assumption.us\/aa-news\/lost-in-place\/\" class=\"\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Lost in place<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","neve_meta_reading_time":""},"categories":[7,12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/assumption.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/assumption.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/assumption.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/assumption.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/assumption.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/assumption.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3246,"href":"https:\/\/assumption.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions\/3246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/assumption.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/assumption.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/assumption.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}