Pope Francis: God’s Merciful Love Goes Out in Search of All Those Who Are 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.”

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“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.”

Kristina Millare is a freelance journalist with a professional communications background in the humanitarian aid and development sector, news journalism, entertainment marketing, politics and government, business and entrepreneurship.