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Student car-parking space had become extremely scarce at a large University. As a result, anyone who parked illegally was quickly ticketed. The student who topped the list of violators one year said, “I didn’t realize how many times I had transgressed until I returned to school after summer vacation. In the ‘comments’ portion of my first parking ticket of the new semester, the officer had written, ‘Welcome back!'”

In today’s Gospel Lesson, Jesus’ parable of “The Prodigal Son” is the story of a father’s “Welcome back!” to a wayward son whose many transgressions were of a far more serious nature than mere parking violations. Most of you know the familiar story, of course…

A father had two sons. The younger one, very restless and impatient, didn’t want to wait around for his father to die and then have to depend on his older brother to divide the inheritance with him. Instead, he said, “Dad, I’d like to have what is coming to me…