“What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it?” (Lk 15:4). Thanks be to God for His mercy! If Jesus didn’t seek out His lost sheep, how many of us would be living in sinful ways? How much good would be left undone by us if He would have let us wander off into the desert to starve and be lost? How different would we, our families, and our communities be without our Good Shepherd finding us, calling us to repentance, and then joyfully setting us on His shoulders and carrying us back to the fold (Lk 15:6)?
St. Paul is a prime example of the wandering sheep that Christ sets out to save. He describes it in this Sunday’s second reading: “I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and arrogant, but I have been mercifully treated because I acted out of ignorance in my unbelief…Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of these I am the foremost” (1 Tim 1: 13,15).
We can be confident that Jesus will save us if we listen to and follow Him: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand” (John 10: 27-29).
God’s abundant mercy requires something from us in return: repentance from our sins and gratitude. In the story of the cleansing of the lepers, remember how only one returned to give thanks? “And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him” (Lk 17: 11-19). This week, we can ask ourselves if we have given thanks to God for all that He has done for us.
Lord Jesus, thank you for being my Good Shepherd. Help me to always repent from my sins and rejoice in my salvation with a grateful heart.
Readings for the Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
EXODUS 32:7-14
PSALM 51:3-19
1 TIM 1:12-17
LUKE 15:1-32