Indeed, it is the memory of being a member of the Fatherʼs household which triggers the repentance of the prodigal son. With this memory, the prodigal son remembers the generosity of his Father towards both the family members and the workers of the family. This generosity initiates more than just a feeling of shame within the prodigal son. The Fatherʼs generosity initiates trust and humility within the prodigal son, which in turn initiates his own willingness to return to the Fatherʼs house, regardless of the unworthiness he also felt in his heart to be counted among the receiver of the Fatherʼs graciousness. The prodigal Son, empowered by the memory of his Fatherʼs generosity, embraced his own unworthiness and entrust himself to the mercy of the Father. This is precisely the notion of repentance.

Repentance is not about judging ourselves based on the level of our sinfulness, just so that we can be forced to once again becoming a ʻ yes-man ʼ to the Father. Repentance, I repeat, is about embracing our own unworthiness while entrusting our self to the work of Godʼs mercy. If we understand repentance as something that we need to force to happen within our lives, then, we will likely becoming the older son in the parable: a ʻ yes-man ʼ who blindly obedient to the Father and yet never appreciates the fact that he is always in close connection, living side-by-side with the Father, receiving everything gratuitously from the Father. The older son misunderstood his relationship with the Father as if it is a relationship between a master and a worker.
He believes that his work should be compensated because it is the result of HIS own work, rather than an opportunity received from the Father. He could not grasp the natural flow of grace coming out from the generous heart of the Father. For the older son, repentance takes place when he can embrace his own unworthiness, which is the inability to accept his own Father as a generous Father. Only after that can he entrust himself to the work of Godʼs mercy. The Fatherʼs invitation for him is to be one with the joy of the Father, to take part in the feast as a sign of welcoming his long-lost brother. This is the concretization of repentance for the older son.

As mentioned before, the story did not end with the older son reuniting with the whole family. It is as if, the parable invites us to be aware more about the effect of Godʼ s generous heart to different situations of unworthiness. We do have memories about the graciousness of Godʼs mercy that can lift us up from our downfalls. We also have invitations from God through people surrounding us to always returning to the bigger picture of Godʼs work of mercy whenever we are being succumbed into our own selfishness or got carried away by our own pride. God is always trying to save us when we are in the position of both the prodigal son or the older son.