A Reflection for Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent
Find today’s readings here.
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.” (Mt 18:12-14)
I think it is safe to say from an administrative perspective that the shepherd in this parable is a terrible manager. Who leaves behind 99 sheep to chase after one? Any shepherd worth his salt would weigh the consequences of losing an entire flock and decide to leave the stray one to the wolves, right?
But Jesus isn’t making a point about optimal management outcomes, of course; he is making a point about valuing the life and holiness of every single person. In this respect, it is worth noting that Matthew does not put this story in with Jesus’ other parables about how the Kingdom of God is for everyone, not just those who scrupulously follow the law or have the right credentials—which is sort of the point of this parable in the Gospel of Luke. There, this parable and those around it (the prodigal son, the woman’s lost coin) emphasize the need to accept those who have repented of their sin.
Matthew’s placement seems to suggest a different inflection. Locating this parable amid lessons about the innocence of children and how to handle disputes with one another gives a much stronger sense of the importance of community in the life of faith. There are no loners in the Kingdom of God, Jesus’ words tell us today; we are all in this together.
What does that mean for the early Christian community? First and foremost it tells them (and us) that our salvation is not dependent upon some individual quest for holiness, but is bound up in the ways in which we care for one another—especially those who seem so lost they are unable to care for themselves. It is a point made by James F. Keenan, S.J., in America recently: that one of the characteristics the Romans noted about the early Christians is that they cared for the sick, they buried the dead—even those who had been abandoned.
Be childlike, Jesus tells us, and care for each other. Offer the helping hand, help the lost ones find their way home. We were all that way once. Is Jesus calling us to be that way again?
