course! No one is so much a father. No one is so devoted. Therefore He will take you back as His son, even though you will have wasted what He gave you.145 Even though you come back stripped of all things, He will receive you—precisely because you have come back. He will be happier over your return than over another’s self-control, but only if you repent from the bottom of your heart, only if you contrast your hunger with the repletion of your father’s servants, only if you abandon the filthy herd