You are welcome back

01The turn

The father ran

“And rising up, he came to his father. And when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion and running to him fell upon his neck and kissed him.”

A great way off. Which means the father had been watching the road.

The son starts his speech.⁸ He never gets to the part about being a hired hand: the father turns to the servants and says, “Bring forth quickly the first robe and put it on him: and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet.”⁹

Then a feast, and music and dancing you could hear from the fields.¹⁰

“Because this my son was dead and is come to life again, was lost and is found. And they began to be merry.”

Maybe you have been away a long time. Maybe you left angry, or just drifted. Here is the question underneath: is there anything that cannot be forgiven?

02The question

No sin is too big

The Church’s answer is startlingly direct: “There is no offense, however serious, that the Church cannot forgive.”²

And again: “There is no one, however wicked and guilty, who may not confidently hope for forgiveness, provided his repentance is honest.” Christ wants the gates of forgiveness to be always open to anyone who turns away from sin.²

Jesus put it in one line: “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance.”¹²

So who has to make the first move? You might be surprised.

03The surprise

God moves first

The Catechism says the centre of this parable is not the son at all, but “the merciful father.”¹

Coming back to God is “a process born of the grace of God who is rich in mercy.”¹³ Even the wish to come home is God at work, drawing a heart to respond to “the merciful love of God who loved us first.”¹⁴

Which leaves one practical worry. After all this time, do I even still count as Catholic?

04The ending

You never stopped being his

Baptism marks a Christian as belonging to Christ, and “no sin can erase this mark.”¹⁸

The Church calls confession the sacrament of conversion, “the first step in returning to the Father.”¹⁹ It offers a new possibility to convert and to recover the grace you may have lost.²⁰

You do not need to have everything sorted out before you come back. The next steps go gently: what may have changed, the hard questions, and how confession works today.

The son had a speech ready. He never got to finish it. You will not need yours either.