Luke 15:17

And when he came to himself, or, as the Arabic renders it, "when he was considering within himself." Euthymius says, becoming master of himself, and as it were waking up from the deep sleep of the drunken." "Returning from his wanderings abroad." Theophylact. "For," says the Interlinear, "he who has gone away from himself does well to return;" and the prodigal had been in a manner beside himself, and a raving madman, but his misery gave him understanding, and hunger taught him to be wise. So S. Gregory Nyssen. (Trad de Oratione) writes, "He did not return to his former state of happiness until, coming to himself, he felt the full weight of his cares." And S. Augustine (Quæst. Evang. lib. xxi.): "He turned his thoughts (intentionem) from these things, which act externally as snares and temptations, to his inner conscience" "For," says S. Ambrose, "he who returns to it returns to himself, but he who departs from Christ forfeits his rights in Christ."

How many hired servants of my father's, &c. They have bread enough and to spare, but I, his son, am perishing with hunger. So God is wont to take away from those who live for pleasure all their delights, and send them hunger, sickness, and pain, that they may return to a better mind, and see what happiness they have forfeited, and into what misery they have fallen; which is the first stage of repentance. Hence Titus writes, "Coming to himself, i.e. comparing his former happiness with his after misery, he thought of what he was whilst he abode with his father, and meditated over and over again on the vile and wretched state to which he had reduced himself by his rejection of God, and subjection to Satan." Learn then from the example of the prodigal, that "repentance follows on hasty counsel, and that a bad beginning makes a bad ending;" and again, "that thou be not conquered by a shameful adversary, regard pleasure only when it is departing from thee, for pleasure is the food of the wicked."

Mystically. If we serve God and follow virtue in hope of worldly gain, we are hirelings; if from fear, slaves; if from love, sons. As the Interlinear says, "How many Jews are there who keep the law only for the sake of present prosperity, and obtain of God that which they desire; but I, who neglect God's law, prosper neither in my temporal nor my spiritual concerns."

S. Augustine, on the other hand, says, "These are the reflections of a man who is coming to a better mind again, and finds himself amongst those who preach the truth, not from love of the truth, but from the desire of earthly gain." But the Gloss takes higher ground: "The hirelings are they who busy themselves in walking worthily, looking for the reward which is to be. These have bread enough and to spare, i.e. they are sustained by the daily nourishment of Divine grace."

He then who is restrained from vice by fear of punishment is the slave; by hope and longing for the kingdom of heaven, the hireling; by love of that which is good, the son. And Theophylact, in like manner, makes this threefold distinction amongst those who are saved.

The Interlinear again, and others who understand by the two sons the Jews and Gentiles, explain thus: "The Jews, who like hirelings serve God in hope of obtaining the good things of this world, possess them plentifully; but the people of the Gentiles, together with the idolaters, are wholly cut off from the truth."