“He arose and went to his father.” He arose from the wreckage of his conscience and body alike. He arose from the depths of hell and touched the heights of heaven. Before the heavenly Father, a child rises higher because of pardon than he fell low because of guilt.
“He arose and went to his father.” He went not by the motion of his feet but by the progress of his thought. Being afar off he had no need of an earthly journey, because he had found short cuts along the way of salvation. He who seeks the divine Father by faith soon finds Him present to himself, and has no need to seek Him by traversing roads.
“He arose and went to his father. But when he was yet a long way off.” How is he who is coming a long way off? Because he has not yet arrived. He who is coming is coming to do penance, but he has not yet arrived at grace. He is coming to his Father’s house but he has not yet reached the glory of his former condition, appearance, and honor.
“But when he was yet a long way off, his father saw him.” That Father saw, he “who dwells on high; and looks down on the low things,” “and the high he knows afar off.” “His father saw him.” The father saw him, in such a way that the son could also behold his father. The father’s countenance illumined the face of the approaching son in such a way that all the dark aspect was dispelled which his guilt had previously cast about it.
St. Peter Chrysologus