Luke 15:12

And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. The younger, i.e. sinners and harlots. For youth is less restrained, more foolish, more inconstant, and more prone to indulgences of every kind. According to the Fathers, the "goods," "substantia," must be taken to mean man's free will, called in Greek βίος. "Because by it," says S. Jerome, "man lives freely and as it pleases him." "For," observes Theophylact, "the substance of man is the capacity of reason which is accompanied by free will." S. Ambrose and others, by substance, understand more fitly the grace of God, virtues and good habits. For it is these which are really wasted and destroyed by the sinner, whilst his free will cannot be lost, as is clear from the parable. You may therefore take the word to mean all the gifts of God, of body and soul, of nature and grace; for these the younger son demands to be entirely given up to him, because he was unwilling any longer to submit to the authority of his father, but desirous of being his own master, and of being free to use or abuse the gifts of God as might seem to him good.

So S. Augustine (Evang. lib. ii. q. 35) writes, "To live, to understand, to remember, to excel in quickness of intellect, these things are gifts of God, which men receive into their own power by freewill." So also S. Jerome, Titus, and Euthymius.

And he divided unto them his living. Placing the gifts just mentioned at the free disposal of each, for "He left man in the hand of his counsel." Ecclus. 15:14.

Ver. 13. And not many days after the younger son, gathered all together, or, according to the Syriac version, "collected together all that had come to him," and took his journey, into a far country "far off," says Euthymius, "not by local separation, but by separation in point of virtue." Such is a state of concupiscence and sin, for the sinner by sinning goes far from God and from heaven, and subjects himself to the dominion of Satan. "But," says Euthymius, "the elder son being wise, remained with his father."

Hence S. Augustine goes on to say, "The far country is forgetfulness of God, a forgetfulness which is mutual, for inasmuch as the sinner forgets God, God in His turn is in a manner forgetful of the sinner, i.e. God ceases to bestow on him light, grace, or guidance." For S. Jerome says, "We must bear in mind that we are with God, or depart from Him, according to our disposition, not according to 'distances of place.'"

Therefore, adds Theophylact, "when a man departs from God, and from the fear of God, he wastes and consumes all God's gifts."

And there wasted his substance, i.e., all the gifts of nature and grace. For the sinner, giving himself up to pleasure and licentiousness, incurs the loss of all God's gifts of grace.

He becomes dull of understanding and is unable to recognise God, or the beauty of holiness. He grows forgetful of God's law and God's goodness towards him. He so corrupts his will as to prefer vice to virtue, pleasure to reason, earth to heaven, the evil one to God; and forsaking the paths of virtue, gives himself up to every kind of evil. Hence he becomes destitute of counsel, reason, sense, and everything that is good; and at last, with all the powers of his soul and body, he worships the creature rather than the Creator, and falls into that sin to which the Psalmist refers, "So they that forsake Thee shall perish; Thou hast destroyed all them that commit fornication against Thee." Ps. lxxiii. 26.

The prodigal son "wasted all the graces of nature," says Euthymius, because, adds S. Augustine, "he made a wrong use of his natural gifts." "He then," says Titus, "expended his goods" (substantiam), i.e., the light which was in him, temperance, the knowledge of the truth, the remembrance of God. And lastly, says Euthymius again, "he corrupted the gift which he had received at his baptism, i.e. nobility of soul, and the capability of living a godly life, for such things as these made up the riches of the prodigal.

With riotous living. By living an abandoned life (α̉σώτως), only sinful but also luxurious and intemperate.

"A prodigal life," says the Gloss, "loves to occupy itself in outward show, forgetful of God, who has His dwelling within."