03/06/2025
The parable of the Prodigal Son
teaches one of the greatest spiritual lessons in the history of religious education. It tells of a father who had two sons. The youngest son took all that the father had given him and left his father's house to journey alone into the far country. While gone he wasted his substance with riotous living, and when all was spent, he ask his father to take him back again saying, "I have sinned against heaven, and am no more worthy to be called thy son." But the father welcomed him with open arms, saying "For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found."
The Bible speaks of God's first two sons. The first was Adam who believed in duality, the knowledge of both good and evil. The second Son "is the Lord from heaven." The first man Adam was made a living Soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit."
We know that the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil." We know that "God is Love" and that his Son was born out of this great love. "God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was good."
The father in this parable represents the Universal Spirit. The two sons referred to allegorically denote the two states of consciousness, harmony and division. This duality is represented in the first man Adam. Man was created with the power and volition of choice. He can choose to live in the world of duality separated from his Source, and thereby dead in his separation. Or he can experience his Divine Awakening into his true birthright as "a Son of God." "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God." And as Heirs to the Eternal Love of God we no longer need to be in the "far country" separated from our true Source. In conscious detachment from our spiritual source we can no longer draw from that inexhaustible reservoir for our substance. It is only as we make conscious union with that Divine Wellspring of Spiritual Power that we are energized with new life.
