Van Gogh’s ‘Sower at Sunset’ Features in Pope Leo’s First General Address

God's love is generous, not calculating, pope says at first audience - The Catholic Sun

By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Gospel parable of the “wasteful sower” who casts seeds on fertile soil as well as on a rocky path “is an image of the way God loves us,” Pope Leo XIV told visitors and pilgrims at his first weekly general audience. The parable can strike people as odd because “we are used to calculating things — and at times it is necessary — but this does not apply in love,” the pope told an estima…

Pope Leo spoke about the eponymous work of the painting The Sower at Sunset, the "Parable of the Sower," a story told by Jesus to his followers in the New Testament.

Van Gogh’s ‘Sower at Sunset’ Features in Pope Leo’s First General Address

Vincent van Gogh made a surprise appearance at the first address by Pope Leo XIV—in spirit, at least. On Wednesday, the Chicago native’s speech pondered the Post-Impressionist’s 1888 painting, The Sower at Sunset, in which a sinking celestial body washes a field in golden light. “What strikes me,” he said, “is that, behind the sower, van Gogh painted the grain already ripe.” Van Gogh returned to pastoral imagery throughout his career, captur…

Pope Leo XIV blesses a woman after his first general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican May 21, 2025. (CNS/Lola Gomez) By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — The Gospel parable of the “wasteful sower” who sows seeds on both fertile soil and a rocky path “is an image of the way God loves us,” Pope Leo XIV told visitors and pilgrims at his first weekly general audience. The parable may seem strange because “we are used to…

What happens to the seed depends on the quality of the soil in which it falls, he said. The post God's love is generous, not calculating, says the Pope in his first general audience appeared first on The Leaven Catholic Newspaper.