Back to the heart: Reading the parable of the prodigal son with St. Augustine

[Michie]

In preparing to write this, I had planned for some time to connect the Scriptures with St. Augustine, whose feast we celebrate on his heavenly birthday, Aug. 28. This choice became more fitting after our new Holy Father emerged onto the central loggia of the Vatican Basilica this spring. An hour after white smoke rose, Pope Leo XIV declared himself before the Church and the world to be “a son of St. Augustine.” Just weeks before, I had published “Return to the Heart: The Biblical Spirituality of St. Augustine’s Confessions” (Emmaus Road Publishing). Leo, the first pope from the Augustinian Order, gave an immediate relevance to my scholarly labors on the person and message of St. Augustine.

In his “Confessions,” the first introspective autobiography, St. Augustine narrated his sinful departure from and graced return to God by comparing himself to the prodigal son in Jesus’ famous parable of Luke 15. Pope Leo reminded us, in one of his first general audiences, that a parable “throws before me a word that provokes me and prompts me to question myself.” By reading the story of the prodigal son alongside Augustine, we are given greater insight into the wisdom of Christ the teacher.

Continued below.

Back to the heart: Reading the parable of the prodigal son with St. Augustine

The Prodigal Son, seen through St. Augustine and Pope Leo XIV, shows how God’s grace restores our identity as his children.

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