Rembrandt's Prodigal Son is one of my favorite paintings. The Gospel of St.

Luke
where he develops the story of this son who asks for his father's inheritance during
his lifetime and goes to a distant country where he squanders all his fortune
wrongly. The day comes when all his money runs out and he goes hungry, he gets
a job taking care of pigs and he could not even feed himself with the acorns given
to the pigs. When he reflects on what happened, when he makes a hole in his heart
and sees everything that is happening, when he discovers his identity and realizes
that he is living a lie, out of the values instilled by his father, out of his father's
love, out of his father's care. Ahh but no, he decided to leave the safe place. He felt
the youth calling him to a life outside his father's house and the worst sin was not
taking away his father's inheritance, but the lie of his freedom....
Why didn't he feast in his father's house? Why didn't he sin with women in his
father's house? Why did he leave when he had everything in his father's house?
The answer to all these questions can be summed up in one: "The presence of his
Father".
A Father who is present in everything. The presence of his father filled him with
fear, or rather, his conscience did not leave him alone. To sin, to blaspheme in his
Father's presence would be horrifying, so he left the house.
When he lost all his heart he longed to be in his father's house, but he no longer felt
worthy. - "Perhaps he will receive me as one of his workers" - he said to himself.
There was a hope of finding refuge in his father's house, but no longer as a son but
at least as a slave.
There is a modern story of the parable of the prodigal son that I liked very much
and I would like to share it: "the son wrote a letter to his father saying: Father I
have sinned against heaven and against you, but if you still love me place a white
handkerchief on the door of the house and that will be the sign that you will
receive me, if I do not see the handkerchief I will return knowing that I do not
deserve to return. She sent the letter to her father and was on her way. This is the
attitude that made the youngest son change his mind, that made him remove his
false identity, that made him purify the lie of not feeling loved by his father.
What happens in this world, especially when contemplating a painting of this
spiritual magnitude, is that young people are not capable of just going forward
setting out on the way as the prodigal son did. It is enough for God that we
approach him.
 The younger son's arrival and the father's embrace are the painting's main scenes.
The Father is represented with two different hands: The first is a woman's hand and
the second is a man's hand. This represents that God is Mother and welcomes us as
our lost children and shows the affection with which a mother embraces her
children. But it is also Father who is a strong hand, giving encouragement and
comfort to never be separated from his breast.