Last week, the Maronite Catholic Church celebrated Sunday of the Prodigal Son. This year, Father focused his homily on the 'father' in the story. It left quite an impression on us all.
This week, we celebrate Sunday of the Paralytic (the man lowered through a hole in the roof of St. Peter's house in Capaernaum).
The Gospel of the Prodigal Son is one we have studied in our Bible class. Note that for a Jew, attending to swine is as low as one can go. Those 'pods' are comparable to to corn cobs, after all of the corn has been extracted. They provide no sustinence to a human, but fill the pig's belly.