UV READERS' GROUP & ONLINE BOOK CLUB QUESTIONS: The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri Nouwen

MEETING: 4th March, 2010

Without exception, members of my real-time Readers’ Group found this an AMAZING book, and couldn’t believe how much they got out of it. To read their Discussion on these Questions, go to: Return Of The Prodigal Son – Rembrandt Painting Inspires Author Henri Nouwen: ONLINE BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION

THE YOUNGER SON

P.36, Nouwen writes that the son’s leaving is a more offensive act than it first seems, because the implication (of receiving what he has no right to receive) is that he cannot wait for the Father to die.

Q. How do we perceive our wrong-doing? Or ‘doing our own thing’? Do we truly understand it as offensive; as taking what we have no right to; as ‘leaving’ and ‘going to a distant country’?

P.40-42 speak of the seductive voices that tell us we are not going to be loved unless we ‘go out there and prove that you are worth something,’ and of the anger, resentment, jealousy etc that this arouses in us. Those voices ‘deny loudly that love is a totally free gift.’

Q. What are the things that entice us to believe that we are ‘not good enough’? Are we aware that when we trust those voices and forget the voice of unconditional love, we are pulled into a ‘distant country’?

P.51/2 speak of the long journey home, and of ‘rehearsing’ explanations in our minds when we know we’ve done wrong (boasting, apologising, defending, evoking praise or pity) and on P.53 Nouwen admits that it’s ‘almost as if I want to prove to God that my darkness is too challenging to overcome’.

Q. In what way is this your experience, and why do you think this is?

P.54 shows us i) a picture of a Child of God, which is also ii) a self-portrait of Jesus (the Beatitudes) and suggests that iii) the Rembrandt portrait portrays being ‘born again’ and iv) that Jesus, himself, became the Prodigal son for us.

Q. Where do you see yourself in relation to these pictures?

THE ELDER SON

P.72 reveals the underlying complaint of the elder son’s self-righteous, self-pitying words to the Father – that of ‘a heart that feels it never received what it was due’. There is more than a hint of Nouwen’s own sense of inferiority in his childhood.

Q. In what ways are we guilty of feeling that ‘life’ or God have let us down? Could it be because we compare our lot with others and believe they are more favoured than we are? To what extent has our upbringing played a part?

P.78 says that ‘God’s love does not depend on our repentance or our inner or outer changes.’ And that ‘God’s only desire is to bring me home.’

Q. Why do you think we find it so difficult to believe that? Could it be because our own love falls so far short of that ideal, and that we measure God’s love by our own?

P.82 Nouwen speaks of the helplessness of the elder son to ‘fabricate’ his true freedom, and says that ‘by myself I cannot leave the land of my anger,’ but ‘I am lost. I must be found.’

Q. Do you agree with this seemingly passive way of thinking? If so, what do you think is at the root of our inability to be found?

THE FATHER

P.96 ‘The true centre of Rembrandt’s painting is the hands of the Father. . . Those hands are God’s hands. They are also the hands of my parents, teachers, friends, healers . . .’

Q. Whose earthly hands have represented God’s heavenly hands in our lives? How?

P.99 The two hands of the Father are portrayed very differently: one muscular and male; the other slender and female.

Q. In what ways have you experienced those different hands? Since reading The Shack, how has your perception of the motherliness of the Father changed?

P.113 The Father throws a Banquet for every Child of God who returns home, and both sons are invited.

Q. Do we, like Nouwen, find this concept difficult to believe: in general / in particular for us?

P.121 Nouwen admits to a perception of the Father as ‘threatening and fearsome’ whilst finding it easy to identify with the two sons. But in this final chapter, he asks us, the reader, to identify with the Father; to see ourselves as the ones showing the compassion, grief, forgiveness and generosity mentioned on P.128.

Q. When, where and how might we ever find ourselves in the role of the Father? Is this a role we find desirable / feel comfortable about? Might it be something we should pray for and strive for?

For Nouwen, Rembrandt’s painting clearly had a huge impact on his life.

Q. What – if anything – has similarly impacted our lives?

To read the Discussion on these Questions, go to: Return Of The Prodigal Son – Rembrandt Painting Inspires Author Henri Nouwen: ONLINE BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION. And do, please, have your own say - whether or not you have read the book.

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Author of a number of books, one a Sunday Times No 4 Bestseller, Mel Menzies is also an experienced Speaker at live events, as well as on Radio and TV. This article, in its original form, can be found at http://www.melmenzies.co.uk/