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Illustration:Rembrandt’s “The Return of the Prodigal Son”
Pope Francis’ Catechesis for the general audience of 16 April 2025
Cycle of Catechesis – Jubilee 2025. Jesus Christ our Hope. II. The life of Jesus.
The encounters 5. The merciful father.
He was lost and has been found (Luke 15:32)
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
After reflecting on Jesus’ encounters with some of the characters of the Gospel, I would like to begin this catechesis by reflecting on some of the parables. As we know, they are stories based on images and situations of everyday reality.
That is why they touch our lives. They provoke us. And they ask us to take a stand: where am I in this story?
Let us begin with the most famous parable, the one that we perhaps all remember from our childhood: the parable of the father and the two sons. Here we find the heart of the gospel of Jesus, God’s mercy.
The Parable of the Prodigal and His Brother (Luke 15:11-32)
Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons; and the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that falls to me.’ And he divided his living between them.
Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took his journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in loose living. And when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want. So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have fed onthe pods that the swine ate; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants.”’
And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to make merry.
“Now his elder son was in the field; and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what this meant.
And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe and sound. But he was angry and refused to go in.
His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command; yet you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf!’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.
It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’”
Pope Francis continues:
The evangelist Luke says that Jesus told this parable to the Pharisees and scribes, who complained that He was eating with sinners. Therefore it could be said that it is a parable addressed to those who are lost, but do not know it, and who judge others.
The Gospel is meant to give us a message of hope, because it tells us that wherever we are lost, and however we are lost, God is always looking for us!
Perhaps we have gone astray like a sheep, that had strayed from the path to graze or fallen behind because of fatigue.
Maybe we have been lost like a coin that has fallen on the ground and cannot be found, or someone has put it somewhere and cannot remember where.
Or maybe we are lost like this father’s the two sons: the youngest because he was tired of being in a relationship that he felt was too demanding; but the eldest is also lost, because it is not enough to stay at home when there is pride and resentment in his heart.
Love is always a commitment, there is always something that we must lose in order to reach out to another person.
But the younger son in the parable thinks only of himself, as happens in certain phases of childhood and adolescence.
In reality, we also see around us many adults who are like this, who are unable to maintain a relationship because they are selfish.
They delude themselves that they will find themselves and instead they lose themselves, because only when we live for someone do we really live.
This younger son, like all of us, hungers for affection, he wants to be loved.
But love is a precious gift; it must be handled with care.
Instead, he squanders it, he disregards it, he does not respect himself.
He realizes this in times of famine, when no-one cares for him.
The risk is that in those moments we beg for affection and attach ourselves to the first master we meet.
It is these experiences that create in us the distorted belief that we can only be in a relationship as a servant, as if we have to atone for some guilt, or as if true love cannot exist.
In fact, when the younger son hits rock bottom, he thinks he is going back to his father’s house to pick up a few crumbs of affection from the floor.
Only those who truly love us can free us from this false view of love.
In our relationship with God, this is exactly what we experience.
The great painter Rembrandt beautifully depicted the return of the prodigal son in a famous painting.
The young man’s head is shaved, like that of a penitent, but it also looks like the head of a child, because this son is reborn.
And then the father’s hands: one male and the other female, to describe the strength and tenderness in the embrace of forgiveness.
But it is the eldest son who represents those for whom the parable is told: he is the son who always stayed at home with his father, but was distant from him, distant in heart.
This son might also have wanted to leave, but out of fear or duty he stayed there, in that relationship.
However, if you are unwilling to adapt, you begin to harbor anger within yourself, and sooner or later that anger explodes. Paradoxically, it is the eldest son who runs the risk of being left out because he does not share his father’s joy.
The father also reaches out to him. He does not reproach him or call him to duty.
He just wants him to feel his love. He invites him to enter and leaves the door open.
This door remains open for us as well.
In fact, this is the reason for hope: we can hope because we know that the father is waiting for us, he sees us from afar, and he always leaves the door open.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us ask ourselves, then, where we are in this wonderful story.
And let us ask God the Father for the grace that we too can find our way back home.
