Daily Mass Gospel Reflection - A Different Shepherd

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 12.06.22 | Bishop Robert Barron

[MurphsLaw]

Second Week of Advent
Matthew 18:12–14

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus asks:
"If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray,
will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray?"
Well, of course not! No self-respecting shepherd would ever think of doing that.
If you were a shepherd, you’d cut your losses.
That sheep is probably dead anyway if it wandered far enough away.

But we are to understand that God is like that foolish shepherd.
God’s love throws caution to the wind to seek out the lost sheep.
We might expect God to be good to those who are good and kind to those who follow his commandments.
Those who don’t, who wander away, are simply lost. God might give them a few minutes, but then they’re on their own.

No; God is like this kooky shepherd. God loves irrationally,
exuberantly risking it all in order to find the one who wandered away.
What good news:
God does not love according to a strict justice on our terms,
but loves in his own extravagant way.

[MurphsLaw]

+++Jesus said to his disciples:
"What is your opinion?
If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray,
will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills
and go in search of the stray?
And if he finds it,
amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it
than over the ninety-nine that did not stray.
In just the same way,
it is not the will of your heavenly Father
that one of these little ones be lost."+++