We are grateful to Fr. Emanuel Franco, O.Carm., for his spare and elegant illustration of the cross and palms, which quietly aids us in ushering in the season of Lent (manuocarm.org).

This month, however, let us examine the stark contrast presented by Edward Riojas (edriojasartist.com) on our back cover. The Prodigal Son brings to mind not only Jesus’ parable but also an Old Testament verse: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live (Deut 30:19). The young man is starving, weak, and dejected as he makes his way back to his father’s estate, but he has made his choice—he would rather live as a servant in his father’s house than die in a living hell. With the Holy Spirit as his guide, he has turned his back on the death that prevails in the valley he leaves behind. Symbols of death abound—the Scorpion card, a pair of skulls, the outline of a gibbet, and the silhouette of the crucified Savior— a reminder that Christ himself accepted death so we might have the fullness of life.

Though this parable is known as the “Parable of the Prodigal Son” for the young man’s waste of his inheritance, we often fail to recognize the prodigality of the father, who freely gave his youngest son half of everything he had. He had plenty more for his family, after all. He is prodigal, too, with his love when the young man returns. In Riojas’s painting, the father runs to greet his returning son, hurrying through fields of endless abundance. We, too, are free to choose. As we begin our Lenten journey, may we also choose life and surrender ourselves to the Father’s infinite compassion and mercy.