31st Week in Ordinary Time
What man among you . . . would not leave the ninety-nine? (Luke 15:4)
Would you behave like this shepherd? If you were out in the desert with one hundred sheep and one of them wandered off, you wouldn’t leave the ninety-nine unprotected and head off on a wild goose chase in search of one sheep. You’d probably cut your losses and head home to get the ninety-nine to safety.
Also, if you were this woman who lost one of ten matching coins, you might indeed light a lamp and sweep the house carefully until you found it. But you certainly wouldn’t throw a party to let the neighbors know about your success. You would be too embarrassed about misplacing it in the first place, or you wouldn’t want to spend the money you just found on a party.
In telling these stories, Jesus wants us to scratch our heads in wonder. We aren’t much like this shepherd or this woman—but he is. His concern for us and for anyone who strays is extravagant. It’s almost as extravagant as his rejoicing when he finds us.
What good news! God will go to any lengths to find us. It doesn’t matter how far we’ve wandered or how much dirt we’ve wallowed in—that’s how deeply he wants us to be with him.
So don’t be discouraged if you haven’t been following the Shepherd as closely as you should. You haven’t traveled beyond the reach of his love. Even your realization that something is amiss is cause for God to rejoice. And don’t despair if someone you love has wandered off and seems beyond hope. No one is ever beyond the Shepherd’s concern.
We will never truly understand the depth of God’s mercy and love. That’s why Jesus’ parables seem so puzzling to us. But if we can only understand one thing, it’s this: no matter what we have done or failed to do, God never rejects us. He never rejects anyone. Quite the opposite. Good Shepherd that he is, he is always waiting to hoist us on his shoulders and bring us safely back to the fold. And when he does, what a party there will be!
“Thank you, Jesus, for your extravagant love for me and for those I love!”
Philippians 3:3-8a
Psalm 105:2-7
Saint Peter Chrysologus (c.406-450)
Bishop of Ravenna, Doctor of the Church
Sermon 168, 4 – 6
God goes in search of the one sheep for the sake of the salvation of all
The fact of re-finding something we had lost always fills us anew with joy. And this joy is greater than that we felt before losing it, when the thing was safely kept. But the parable of the lost sheep speaks more of God’s tenderness than of the way in which people usually behave. It expresses a profound truth. To leave behind something of importance for love of what is more humble is characteristic of divine power, not of human possessiveness. For God even brings into existence what is not: he sets out in search of what is lost while still keeping what he had left in place, and he finds what had strayed without losing what he has under his protection.
That is why this shepherd is not of earth but of heaven. The parable is not in any respect a representation of human achievements but it conceals divine mysteries, as the numbers it mentions immediately show: “What man among you,” says the Lord, “having a hundred sheep and losing one of them…” As you see, the loss of a single sheep has sorely tried this shepherd, as though the whole flock, deprived of his protection, had set out along a treacherous path. This is why, leaving the ninety-nine others there, he sets out in search of the one. He attends to one alone so that, in that one, all may be found and saved.