integration paper

Date: 03.12.18

In The Return of the Prodigal Son, Nouwen raises two critical questions which are; “How am I to let myself be found by God” and “How am I to let myself be loved by God”. In most of his lifetime, Nouwen has lived struggling to find the answers to these two pressing questions by praying, engaging in compassion works and reading the Scriptures with the aim of evading any temptation that is always hovering around. The author of this book, goes on to assume that he may be struggling to find God and in the real sense God is also in the mission of finding him but because of several reasons there is a barrier between them that needs to be broken down so that both the two can meet since God is also longing for him.

The self-questioning session that Nouwen had when trying to answer these questions reveals more than any person who is in pursuit of finding the face of God can benefit from through reading this book. Most of the people try to use wrong ways hoping that they will achieve the right goals and at the end, they are mesmerized by the outcome because their means were not aligned with the intended goals. For instance, Nouwen admits that in most part of his life he has been on the road to answer the two critical questions that he presents in the book but it was a tireless journey that the destination was in oblivion until when he evaluated the whole process to find out that he was deploying wrong mechanisms with the hope of achieving the right objective. The lack of uniformity between the means and the goal resulted to the time wasted on the search of the reality.

According to Nouwen, in the current world addiction is one vice that makes people be the prodigal sons and daughter making it hard for the Father to access his children because of the obstacle that is crafted by the evil and deceitful ways of life. The addiction to sexual gratification, accumulation of property and power and living lavish life are some of the addictions that Nouwen lists that makes the “son” distance himself from home the distance that makes the father be away from him in case he needs help that demands the permission or the presence of his father. The book eludes that the easier accessibility of these forms of addiction has made it easier for people to be distanced from their “home” which is a problem because of the susceptibility of losing the identity. Nouwen paints a picture that summarizes what happens in the world today where the access to drinks and earthly pleasures is easily and most of the people had sunk in the earthly ocean increasing the number of the prodigal children. However, Nouwen believes that amends can be done for the children to restore their identities because the Father is missing them and he is also in search of them as much as most of them are still running far away from home.

In conclusion, The Return of the Prodigal Son is a book that helps the followers of Christ and those who intend to evaluate their ways and determine their fate and remember that the Father is anxiously waiting for the “prodigal son”.