Pope Francis: God’s merciful love goes out in search of all those who are lost

Using Rembrandt’s oil painting “Return of the Prodigal Son” as a source of inspiration for his April 16, 2025, catechesis, the Holy Father said God’s love is like that of a father who goes out in search of his lost children. / Credit: Rembrandt, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Vatican City, Apr 16, 2025 / 10:13 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Wednesday said the Gospel is a “message of hope” founded on the belief that God is a merciful father and not a slave master.

Using Rembrandt’s oil painting “Return of the Prodigal Son” as a source of inspiration for his April 16 catechesis, the Holy Father said God’s love is like that of a father who goes out in search of his lost children. 

“In this we find the heart of the Gospel of Jesus, namely God’s mercy,” the pope said in his written reflection on the parable of the merciful father with two sons.

“The Gospel is intended to give us a message of hope, because it tells us that wherever we are lost, and however we are lost, God always comes looking for us!” he added.

In his catechesis, the Holy Father said the eldest son who “does not share his father’s joy” in the parable “represents those for whom the parable is told” — those who judge others and do not realize that they are also lost.

“He is the son who always stayed at home with his father yet was distant from him, distant in heart,” he said. “This son may have wanted to leave too, but out of fear or duty he stayed there, in that relationship.” 

“When you adapt unwillingly, however, you begin to harbor anger within you, and sooner or later this anger explodes,” he added. “Paradoxically, it is precisely the eldest son who in the end risks being left out.”

Reflecting on the situation of the younger son who “hits rock bottom” after squandering his inheritance, the pope said his father did not refuse to welcome him back home even though his son “got tired of being in a relationship that he felt was too demanding.”

In his written catechesis, the Holy Father added that it was the merciful father’s gratuitous love that freed his son from the “distorted belief” that he needed to earn back his father’s respect or beg for his affection when he returned home.

“Only those who truly love us can free us from this false view of love,” the pope said. “In the relationship with God, we have precisely this experience.”

“The young man’s head is shaven, like that of a penitent, but it also looks like the head of a child, because this son is being born again,” the Holy Father said, commenting on Rembrandt’s painting.

Asking his readers to “take a position” and ask “where am I in the story?” the pope prayed: “Let us ask God the Father for the grace that we too can find our way back home.”