What is our image of God in terms of divine judgment?  If we examine this question in the Hebrew Bible, we get multiple views and images.  From a God who exacts retribution on its people who go against God’s law and ways.  Then, to a God who relents from the punishment that God initially decides to do after seeing the people turning from their evil ways and repenting in a sincere, humble way.  A repentant people moves the heart of God, causing God to change, to relinquish the destruction God had planned.  Once Jesus comes on the scene, we see a further shift in the image of God, one that is fully embodied by Jesus. 

The Sunday’s gospel of the ‘Prodigal Son’ is a very rich parable and only appears in the gospel of Luke. For a reflection on this gospel one has multiple points of entry or windows to apprehend all that Jesus is trying to communicate.  Parenthetically this tells us the profoundness of the parable as a form of literary genre where multiple meanings are contained in one story and those meanings are ever new and fresh, like a poem is for the reader.