Pope Leo pledges in first general audience to maintain Francis’s catechesis

Elise Ann Allen/ Crux• May 21, 2025

In his first public general audience address, Pope Leo XIV has said he will maintain his predecessor’s focus on Jesus Christ as a source of hope during the ongoing Jubilee year, and prayed for the people of Gaza.

He focused during his address on the famous Parable of the Sower, while also drawing a parallel between it and one of Vincent van Gogh’s most famous paintings.

At the start of the 21 May general audience, after the Gospel was read aloud in various languages – almost exclusively by women, apart from the reader for the Arabic language – Pope Leo announced his decision to resume Pope Francis’s reflection on “Jesus Christ Our Hope” as his weekly catechesis topic during the 2025 Jubilee of Hope.

He then pointed to the Parable of the Sower, saying it was an introduction to all parables, explaining that it offers a clear image of Jesus’s communication style, and that, because of this, ought to be a point of reference for communicating the Gospel in the modern world.

“Every parable tells a story that is taken from everyday life, yet wants to tell us something more, to refer us to a deeper meaning,” Pope Leo said, while urging pilgrims to question themselves on how the Parable of the Sower applies to their personal lives and situations.

As the audience proceeded, the Pope received cheers when speaking in his native English and when greeting pilgrims and faithful from his home country of the United States of America (the loudest cheers quite possibly coming from residents of Chicago and fellow White Sox fans).

The Parable of the Sower speaks about the dynamic of God’s word and the effect it has, he explained, adding, “Indeed, every word of the Gospel is like a seed that is thrown on the ground of our life.”

Jesus uses the image of the seed many times in scripture with different meanings, describing the wheat and the weeds, the mustard seed, the treasure hidden in the field, Leo said, before asking, “What, then, is this soil?”

“It is our heart, but it is also the world, the community, the Church. The word of God, in fact, makes fruitful and provokes every reality,” he said.

When Jesus speaks offering the parable in this Gospel passage, people gather to hear, because his word “fascinates and intrigues” onlookers, the Pope said, adding that this still occurs despite “a variety of different personal situations”.

“The word of Jesus is for everyone, but it works in each person in a different way. This context allows us to understand better the meaning of the parable,” the Pope said, while noting that Jesus surprised listeners by saying the sower goes out and throws seeds everywhere, even on ground where it is unlikely the seeds will bear fruit.

While this potentially seems like a waste, it offers a deeper message, the Pope explained: “We are used to calculating things – and at times it is necessary – but this does not apply in love.”

The potentially “wasteful” way the sower throws seeds on the ground “is an image of the way God loves us”, Pope Leo said, though when it comes the world outside of the supernatural, he cautioned that “the destiny of the seed depends also on the way in which the earth welcomes it and the situation in which it finds itself”.

Pope Leo said that in describing the way the seed bears fruit, Jesus also alludes to his own life and how he must die in order to give life: that he is willing to die in order to transform the lives of each and every person.

He referred to Vincent van Gogh’s famed painting The Sower at Sunset, which, he said, “speaks to me of the farmer’s toil”.

Sower at Sunset, 1888, by Vincent Van Gogh

Behind the image of the sower in the painting, the grain is already ripe, Leo said, calling it an “image of hope”.

“One way or another, the seed has borne fruit. We are not sure how, but it has,” he said, noting that the blazing sun stands at the centre of the painting, “perhaps to remind us that it is God who moves history, even if he sometimes seems absent or distant”.

“It is the sun that warms the clods of earth and makes the seed ripen,” he said, urging faithful to pray for the grace to always welcome the seed of God’s word, and to not be discouraged when this is difficult, but rather to pray for God “to work on us more to make us become a better terrain”.

Pope Leo said one of the primary lessons from the parable is the fact that Jesus throws the seeds of his word on “all kinds of soil”, and in a variety of situations.

“At times we are more superficial and distracted, at times we let ourselves get carried away by enthusiasm, sometimes we are burdened by life’s worries, but there are also times when we are willing and welcoming,” he said.

“God is confident and hopes that sooner or later the seed will blossom.”

This, the Pope added, is how God loves – he “does not wait for us to become the best soil, but he always generously gives us his word. Perhaps by seeing that he trusts us, the desire to be better soil will be kindled in us. This is hope, founded on the rock of God’s generosity and mercy.”

At the close of his audience, Pope Leo XIV again prayed for peace in Gaza, saying the situation is “increasingly painful and concerning”.

He did not mention the Israeli hostages still in captivity, but appealed for the entry of humanitarian aid to be permitted and for “an end to hostilities, the heartbreaking price of which is paid by children, elderly and the sick”.

For the month of May, he urged believers to pray the rosary for peace, and to ask for the Virgin Mary’s intercession so that humanity does not “close themselves to this gift of God and to disarm the heart”.

He also highlighted that Pope Francis passed away exactly one month ago, and recalled his predecessor “with so much gratitude”.

Photo: A woman kisses the hand Pope Leo XIV at the end of his first weekly general audience at St Peter’s Square in the Vatican, 21 May 2025. (Photo by FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP via Getty Images.)