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Sons and daughters, the fathers realized, could make terrible mistakes. As Gregory put it, we are all "changeable" creatures "of unstable nature … beset by weakness." If so, only the gospel, with its offer of forgiveness and restoration to the family's fellowship, could remedy the brokenness of the human heart. The entire story is one of grace, grace undeserved, unexpected, unearned. In Jerome's words, "grace, which is not a payment due to merit, but has been granted as a gift."

Only in Christ and within Christ's body, the church, can we experience forgiveness and freedom from the past's mistakes. Only within Christ's family can we learn to live as he desires. Only within the Trinity's embrace of love can we learn to face what needs to change. Indeed, as Jesus stressed in his parable, repentance, confession, and forgiveness are always possible—an occasion for celebration in heaven and on earth.

Christopher A. Hall is associate professor of biblical and theological studies at Eastern College, St. Davids, Pennsylvania, associate editor of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, and author of Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers (InterVarsity Press).

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October 26 1998, Vol. 42, No. 12