These are probably not the readings we would like to hear this day, but perhaps they are the ones that we need. They set a mirror in front of our souls and dare us to be honest about what we see. Have we been faithful to our Parent and our siblings these past fifteen years, truly faithful? Or have we become a collective version of the Prodigal One, full of arrogant certainty that we know better than the Divine? How has that worked out for us, or for our family? Is it everything we dreamed it would be as we cried ourselves to sleep at the end of that September day? Or have we woken up to find ourselves sitting in the muck like the swine? How can we rise up unless we admit that we have fallen down? Is today the day for truth, or do we need another decade? Yes, it is good news that God is very patient.