Today we read, perhaps, the most beautiful of Jesus’ parables. It has three protagonists: the two brothers (the "prodigal" son and the son who remained at home) and the good father. At that time, Jesus Christ, was really before two "brothers": tax collectors and sinners, on one hand; Pharisees and scribes, on the other. With His words, Jesus justified His goodness and His welcome to sinners.

Even more so: Jesus Christ justifies His goodness toward sinners with the behavior of the father in the parable. By the way he acts, then, Jesus himself becomes the revelation of He who He called His "father". How did God show His merciful love for sinners? In that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5.8). Jesus cannot enter into the narrative framework of the parable because He lives in identification with the Heavenly Father, and bases His conduct on the Father’s.

—O Jesus! It is in the figure of the father, that I see you placed in the heart of the parable, as the concrete realization of the father’s action.