What does Pope Benedict say about the Prodigal Son parable?
The younger brother:
"Is it difficult for us to see clearly reflected here the spirit of the modern rebellion against God and God's law? The leaving behind of everything we once depended on and the will to a freedom without limits? The Greek word used in the parable for the property the son dissipates means "essence" in the vocabulary of Greek philosophy. The prodigal dissipates "his essence", himself.
At the end it is all gone. He who was once completely free is now truly a slave - a swineherd, who would be happy to be given pig feed to eat. Those who understand freedom as a radically arbitrary license to do just want they want and have their own way are living in a lie, for by his very nature, man is part of a shared existence and his freedom is a shared freedom. His very nature contains direction and norm, and becoming inwardly one with this direction and norm is what freedom is all about His false autonomy thus leads to slavery.
From page 204 of "Jesus of Nazareth" by Pope Benedict XVI
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