Pope launches new catechetical series on parables
April 16, 2025
» Continue to this story on Vatican Press Office
CWN Editor's Note: In his weekly catechetical message for April 16, Pope Francis announced the beginning of a new series of reflection on the parables, beginning the series with a meditation on the parable of the Prodigal Son.
The Pope said that the younger son wants to be loved. “But love is a precious gift; it must be treated with care. Instead, he squanders it, he disregards it, he does not respect himself.” Then, when he returns to his father, he thinks that it will be impossible to forgive him, and he will “go back to his father’s house to pick up a few
“Only those who truly love us can free us from this false view of love,” the Pope continued. The father readily embraces his wayward son.
“But it is the eldest son who represents those for whom the parable is told,” the Pope argued. He suggested that the eldest son “wanted to leave, too, but out of fear or duty he stayed there.” The eldest son resented the situation, he continued, and so: “Paradoxically, it is precisely the eldest son who in the end risks being left out, because he does not share his father’s joy.”
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