There was a father who had two sons. But both the sons were estranged in the family in their own ways. The elder son never did love the father, though he did all that the father told him – he did it all for the sake of pure duty. All the while he looked forward to the end of it all, thinking that but doing his due diligence he shall eventually inherit everything that was in the house. He had always looked with contempt at his younger brother — who was complacent and never did bothered to work his due, depending solely upon his father’s riches living from day to day, never ever gave a thought about plans for the future. Comparatively, the elder son was obedient and did all he could to support his father’s farming business.
But even with the apparent obedience of the elder son, he was one without love, showing concern neither for his father nor his younger brother; he always felt that the younger was a good-for-nothing in the family while being constantly doted upon by an overprotective father. However, the elder son felt that all this doesn’t matter for at the end of the day, he would inherit all that his father has.
As for the younger son, he hated his father for being a constant thorn in his flesh. His father was always nagging at him and prevented him from living the life he had wanted. He often felt so “breathless” from being constrained and bounded by the rules of his father. To him, his father was an authoritarian who had always wanted things done his own way. He felt the life he had lived was that of his father’s and not a life of his own. He also hated his elder brother who was that goody-two shoes who did whatever the father instructed him to do – he always felt that his elder brother was one without a soul of his own. One day, the younger son thought, “I shall take my deserved share of the inheritance and leave for a far off land away from my manipulative father and mindless brother.”
Before long, the younger brother requested his due from his father so that he could go to a faraway country to live the life of true freedom, a life that had always wanted, only achievable by leaving his father’s house. Even though the father was devastated, the elder son was secretly elated; for with his younger brother gone, he had become the only son in the house. The father had no one else to depend upon but him, surely his days of becoming the master of the house was near and the father would surely appreciate him more now with his useless brother gone. However, he soon took a setback, when he saw that his father went out daily in the morning out of the house, walked to the highest point where they had lived, always looking afar with a sorrowful face. He was indignant every time his father did this, for he couldn’t understand why his father was doing all this. Wasn’t he a hundred times better than his younger brother, why was his father wasting his effort to even try to hold on to any hope of his return. He continued to work hard even with his brother gone but he would sometimes envy his younger brother thinking whether he should have done the same, wondering if he would have lived a better away from the father. When he started to understand that all the father has would eventually be his, he was happy within himself for remaining in the house.
It had been almost five years and any thoughts about his younger brother was completely out of his mind, when the worst day of his life arrived; while he was still working out in the fields, a servant informed him of his younger brother returned. He was even told to get himself prepared for a feast for his younger brother. He was infuriated, now when he thought that his brother was finally gone, he had suddenly returned; the last thing that he would expected his father to do was to throw a feast for him instead of punishing him for the evil deeds that he had done. He was so angry that he refused to budge and stayed out in the fields even when the servants persuaded him to join in the celebration. Eventually the father came and pleaded with him to join in the feast, but he was so enraged, he rebuked his father saying, “Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!” The father knew that the brother had never loved his younger brother and could never appreciate what he was actually doing, so he told him, “My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found”
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