Go after the lost one

“Go after the lost one”

Our parable unfolds around three characters: the shepherd, the lost sheep and the rest of the flock. The one who acts, however, is only the shepherd, not the sheep. The shepherd, then, is the only real protagonist and everything depends on him…. It is a paradox that arouses doubt about the action of the shepherd: is it wise to abandon the ninety-nine for one single sheep? And what’s more, not in the safety of a pen but in the desert? According to biblical tradition, the desert is a place of death where it is hard to find food and water, shelterless and where one is at the mercy of wild beasts and thieves. What are the ninety-nine defenseless sheep supposed to do? The paradox continues, in any case, saying that the shepherd, having found the sheep, lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me. It seems then that the shepherd didn’t go back to the desert to recover the rest of the flock! Reaching out to that single sheep he seems to forget the other ninety-nine. But it’s not like that really. The lesson that Jesus wants us to learn is, rather, that…the Lord cannot accept the fact that a single person can be lost….

We should reflect on this parable often, for in the Christian community there is always someone who is missing and if that person is gone, a place is left empty. Sometimes this is daunting and leads us to believe that a loss is inevitable, like an incurable disease…. In Jesus’ vision there are no sheep that are definitively lost, but only sheep that must be found again…. To the last moment, God is searching for us. Think of the good thief. 

Pope Francis 

His Holiness Pope Francis was elected to the See of Saint Peter in 2013. [From General Audience, May 4, 2016. Used with permission of the Libreria Editrice Vaticana. www.vatican.va.]