There is a contemporary Buddhist parable that can help us to understand what is being said here: One day the Buddha, badly overweight, was sitting under a tree. A young soldier, trim and handsome, came along, looked at the Buddha, and said: "You look like a pig!" The Buddha replied: "Well, you look like God!" "Why would you say that?" asked the rather surprised young soldier. "Well," replied the Buddha, "we see what's inside us. I think about God all day and when I look out that is what I see. You, obviously, must think about other things ... " What we see outside of ourselves is very much colored by what is, first of all, inside of us. Thus, Jesus had within him a concept of a God who was relaxed, smiling, and blessing the earth. Hence, Jesus too looked out at us and saw, in us, something worth smiling at and blessing. A couple of years before he died, Henri Nouwen, perhaps the best spiritual writer of our generation, wrote a book that many consider to be a spiritual masterpiece. It is entitled The Return of the Prodigal Son,23 and is both a commentary on Rembrandt's famous painting by that same title and a long spiritual reflection on the Fatherhood and Motherhood of God.
Nouwen points out that, in Rembrandt's painting of the Father of the Prodigal Son, the figure painted there, representing God, has a number of interesting features: First of all, he is depicted as blind. His eyes are shut and he sees the prodigal son not with his eyes but with his heart (to which he is tenderly holding the son's head). The implication is obvious, God sees with the heart. Moreover, the figure representing God has one male hand (which is pulling the wayward son to himself) and one female hand (which is caressing the son's back). Thus God is presented here as both mother and father, loving as does a woman and as does a man. Moreover, the scene, as depicted by Rembrandt, highlights three characters: the prodigal son, his older brother, and the all compassionate father/mother figure who is offering the embrace of compassion and forgiveness. What the painting invites us to do is to see ourselves in each of these characters, that is, in the weakness of the wayward son, in the bitterness of the older brother, and in the compassion of the father/mother, God.
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The first two identifications are more obvious for us. We know that, like the younger son, we are often away from God's house because of our weaknesses; just as we know too that, like the older brother, we are often absent from the Father's love and celebration through our bitterness and anger. As we get older, we begin to realize that we are really both sons; the younger one, weak and sinful, and the older one, bitter and angry. However, what Jesus' revelation in this parable really invites us to (which is so powerfully evident in Rembrandt's painting) is to identify with the Father and his/her all-embracing, all-forgiving, caressing compassion. At the end of the day, that is what we are called to in the spiritual life. Ultimately, we are meant to radiate both God's masculine, fatherly, embrace of the wayward and God's feminine, motherly, caress of the bitter. To do that, however, we need first to have experienced that ourselves and part of accepting God's forgiving embrace is to conceive of God correctly.
To have the courage to let ourselves be embraced when we are sinful and bitter is to, first of all, know a God who-as Jesus, Julian of Norwich, Rembrandt, and Henri Nouwen assure us-is both a blessing Father and a caressing Mother, who sees with the eyes of the heart, and who, despite our weaknesses and angers, sits completely relaxed, smiling, with a face like a marvelous symphony. That symphony, which is always evident in God's face, is the future to which all of us, and our earth itself, can look forward. Thus, given that we live under a smiling, relaxed, all-forgiving, and all-powerful God, we too should relax and smile, at least once in a while, because, irrespective of anything that has ever happened or will ever happen, in the end, "all shall be well, and all shall be well, and every manner of being shall be well."
In the Rembrandt painting, the astray son has come home in a wretch state from the journey where he wasted his belongings and became a victim of poverty and despair. He kneels before the father in desolation wishing for forgiveness and renewed place in the family. The father of the prodigal son is portrayed as blind holding the prodigal son with attender gesture using his two hands. The left hand appears more masculine and more prominent while the right side is softer and more receptive. One side is tenderly holding the sons head while the other hand is pulling the son to himself. (Rolheiser, 1999).
Rembrandt is trying to depict God as both the mother and the father, loving as a mother and does a man. Again, the father is portrayed as blind which shows how God sees with the heart and not the eyes. Moreover, the picture highlight three characters, the prodigal son, the older brother and the father/mother figure who is offering the embrace of compassion and forgiveness (Rolheiser, 1999). In the parable of the lost son in the book of St. Luke, the main point of the story is forgiveness of our sins when we repent and return wholeheartedly to God and how our heavenly Father is happy and ready to forgive us our sins and welcome us back despite the degree of our sins.
Rolheiser ended with this picture and the story because he wanted was inviting the reader to see themselves in accordance to these three characters, that is, weakness of prodigal son, the bitterness of the older brother and compassion of the father/mother, God. Most Christians are like the prodigal son often strays away from God because of our weakness and just like the elder brother, often bitter and angered by the lack fathers love and celebration (Rolheiser, 1999). However, Jesus revelation through this painting and the parable invites us to identify with the father and his/her all-embracing, all forgiving, caressing and compassionate since that is what we are called to in the spiritual life.
Reference
Rolheiser, Ronald. The holy longing: the search for a Christian spirituality /Ronald Rolheiser. - 1st ed. in the U.S.A. 1999
