Patristic A.D. 407
“(Hom. 14. in Ep. Rom.) Who after that he said, I will go to my father, (which brought all good things,) tarried not, but took the whole journey; for it follows, And he arose, and came to his father. Let us do likewise, and not be wearied with the length of the way, for if we are willing, the return will become swift and easy, provided that we desert sin, which led us out from our father’s house. But the father pitieth those who return. For it is added, And when he was yet afar off.”
Catena Aurea: Gospel of Luke, as excerpted in the Catena Aurea on Luke 15:17-24
PD · J. H. Newman (Oxford, 1843) ↗