The Lesson from Pigs

“He began to be in need, so he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs ate, but nobody gave him anything. When he came to his senses…he said: I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, ‘Father I have sinned against heaven and you…’” (The Parable of the Prodigal Son, Luke 15:11-32)

The parable of the Prodigal Son tells us that he came to his senses feeding the pigs. Could he have learned something from the pigs that encouraged him to return home? Imagine yourself in his place. After his wild and foolish fling, he found himself without funds or friends. What could he do? Raised in a wealthy household with servants to do all the menial tasks, he had none of their skills to work as a laborer. It’s not easy being poor, but it’s harder for the wealthy to be penniless. He never made anything with his hands. He had no trade. One glance at him dressed in fine clothing, now shabby and dirty, would show that he looked like what he was—in the harsh but accurate term, a loser.

Worse, when he appealed to his fellow Jews who learned of his tale, he would be scorned and sent off as an ingrate for having abused the love of his parents and squandered their wealth. This was not modern America where it’s normal for children to disparage their parents. “Honor your father and mother” is the fifth of Moses’ Ten Commandments. Everyone who curses father or mother is to be put to death: So it is written [Exodus 21:17, Leviticus 20:9]. No respectable Jew would help such a person, hence he found himself among the gentiles, tending their pigs, which also is condemned by Hebrew law.

Staring at the swine, he mulled over them and compared them with himself. Helping in their slaughter, he may have noticed how anatomically like they are to humans. Their internal organs are like ours, they have four chambers of the heart, their skin burns when exposed to excessive sunlight, and they are among the most intelligent of animals.

He could have concluded that the behavior of the pigs he tended was much like his own. Obsessed with their own drives, they have no consideration for the wants of others. They live to eat and to rut. That’s what pigs do; but for a pig, that’s normal behavior. For a human being, it is despicable. Maybe he had cause to act as he had in playing on the affection of his parents and using them for his own nefarious purposes. Perhaps he had gone through the cycle of self-pity, depression and fatalism as so many like him would do. One might conclude that he was doing the same in considering his options, finally realizing that it was worth the risk in returning to his family home and accept whatever punishment would be meted out, only to have the opportunity to survive. The pigs had taught him values. He was told not to eat their pods; to the farmer he was worthless, but the pigs were valuable. They were raised for food. He was raised for love.

There are several conclusions to be drawn from the story with a happy end, among them the one which our loving Lord Jesus Christ is stressing: There is no need for the worst of sinners to condemn himself to an existence of isolation from society and even from himself or herself. The God who created us never stops loving us. He is the absolute Father, fulfilling all that the title implies. The ancient theologian Meister Eckhart said: Some define God as Good; others define God as Love; but the loftiest definition of God is Compassion. As we continue in the Triodion cycle from the Sunday of the Pharisee, which encourages us to know who we are, we move to the second Sunday, the parable of the Lost Son, where we begin to learn Who God is—what He is like, and whom He loves.