THE PARABLE OF THE LOST SHEEP

Luke 15:1-10

When I read this gospel I said to myself: what if the 99 sheep run away as the shepherd goes in search of the lost one. He might end up losing them all. Then I came across these powerful word of Pope Francis that “God has a loving weakness”. And finding the lost sheep is a joy to God, because he has a “loving weakness” for those who are lost. Jesus gave the parable of the lost sheep and lost coin because of the attitude of the scribes and the Pharisees, who were scandalized by the things that he did. They murmured against him: “This man is dangerous, he eats with sinners, he offends God, he desecrates the ministry of a prophet to approach these people”. Jesus answers this with a parable.

He replies to this murmuring with a parable that expresses joy at the end. It is as if he is saying: “you are scandalized by what I do, but my Father rejoices.” That is the most profound message of this story: the joy of God, a God who does not like to lose. Our God is not a good loser, and this is why he goes out on his own to search. He is a God who searches: He searches for all those who are far away from Him, like the shepherd who goes to search for the lost sheep.

The work of God is to go and search, in order to invite everyone to the celebrations, good and bad, righteous or sinner, all are invited. He can’t stand losing one of His own. He is a God who walks around searching for us, and has a certain loving weakness for those who are furthest away, those who are lost. And how does he search? He searches until the end; until he finds it, like the shepherd who goes out into the darkness, searching, until he finds the sheep. Or like the woman, when she loses a coin, who lights a lamp and sweeps the house, and searches carefully. That’s how God searches.

Then when he has found the sheep and brought it back into the fold with the others, no one must say ‘you were lost’, but everyone should say ‘you are one of us’, because the return of the lost sheep brings back its dignity as part of the fold. There is no difference, because God returns to the fold everyone he finds. And when he does this, he is a God who rejoices. The joy of God is not the death of the sinner, but his life. He loves us and he does not want to lose any one. May we always remain in this love.