WORDS FOR LIFE: March 6th 2016
In the Parable of the Prodigal Son:
- In this Parable, the younger son is asserting his independence and breaks with his father. He says to his father, «Give me my share of the estate» and sets off for a distant land. In this way he breaks with his father and everything he has taught him.He is not going to accept any authority over himself and is going to do exactly what he likes, uninhibited by anybody or anything. At times aren´t we a bit like him?
- The younger son finishes up looking after pigs, an unclean and forbidden animal for the Jews (Leviticus 11,4,7). The younger son thus falls into the lowest kind of depravity – looking after animals banned by his religion. In this way we can see that a person who only follows his own whims ends up living in complete isolation, alienation and falsehood, failing to love his neighbour. His desire for freedom has led to misery, humiliation and slavery.
