A Caring and Love-centered Heart
Introduction
Are we ever sure that love is genuine, that it is going to last and to remain strong? Yes, we are sure that it is authentic when it is tested and tried in difficulties, when it can weather all storms, when it survives disappointments and betrayals. True love wears often such scars that have not destroyed love but often deepened it. We discover such dependable love in God, the source of all love, as evidenced in the heart of his Son. He does not give up on us. The gospel expresses this in the image of the Good Shepherd: Christ who leads his people, seeks out what is lost, brings together what is scattered and binds the wounds of the injured. Let us celebrate this love without measure.
First Reading: The Lost I Will Seek Out
God’s love prompts him not to abandon his scattered people but to seek what is lost, to care for the injured, and to be attentive to each and every one.
1 Reading: Ezekiel 34:11-16
Thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will look after and tend my sheep. As a shepherd tends his flock when he finds himself among his scattered sheep, so will I tend my sheep. I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered when it was cloudy and dark. I will lead them out from among the peoples and gather them from the foreign lands; I will bring them back to their own country and pasture them upon the mountains of Israel in the land’s ravines and all its inhabited places. In good pastures will I pasture them, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing ground. There they shall lie down on good grazing ground, and in rich pastures shall they be pastured on the mountains of Israel. I myself will pasture my sheep; I myself will give them rest, says the Lord GOD. The lost I will seek out, the strayed I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, the sick I will heal, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy, shepherding them rightly.
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
Beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul. R.
He guides me in right paths
For his name’s sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side
With your rod and your staff
that give me courage. R.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows. R.
Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
And I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come. R.
Second Reading: The Proof of God’s Love
The proof of God’s love is that Christ died for us sinners. He wiped away our sins by his blood and gave us life. The Holy Spirit makes us grow in God’s love.
2 Reading: Romans 5:5-11
Brothers and sisters: The love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the holy Spirit that has been given to us. For Christ, while we were still helpless, died at the appointed time for the ungodly. Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. How much more then, since we are now justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath. Indeed, if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, once reconciled, will we be saved by his life. Not only that, but we also boast of God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Gospel: Share My Joy: I Have Found My Lost Sheep
The leaders of God’s people gave up on sinners and condemned them. Jesus’ leadership is one of love. He does not abandon the wayward but brings them back.
Gospel: Luke 15:3-7
Jesus told them this parable, “Who among you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, will not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and seek out the lost one till he finds it? And finding it, will he not joyfully carry it home on his shoulders? Then he will call his friends and neighbours together and say: ‘Celebrate with me for I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you, just so, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine upright who do not need to repent.”
Commentary
I once came into contact with a gentle Indian nun who had lived a year in Europe and was beginning to get courage to comment on things. “Europeans are always asking ‘Why?’,” she said, “and ‘How much?’ and ‘What time is it?’” It was one of the best lessons I ever had, and like all the best lessons it wasn’t intended as a lesson at all.
The head makes distinctions and oppositions; it thinks in numbers and percentages; it would mince everything down to a featureless sameness like chipboard. In Samuel Beckett’s play, Waiting for Godot, one of the characters, on hearing that one of the two thieves crucified with Jesus was saved, remarked, “It was a fair percentage!” In the parable of the lost sheep, the shepherd had he been working only with his head, would have found 99% quite satisfactory. But he was working from his heart, which knows nothing about percentages, and he went searching for the one that was lost. That’s the nature of the heart. It loses itself to find the lost.
How do we see the outsider, the marginal person, the failure…? That is the surest way of checking whether we live out of our head or out of our heart.
Blessing
God never crushes people.
Though he could, and we deserve it.
We have not responded to his love as we should have;
we may have grossly betrayed him
or shown not much more than indifference.
It is good that we keep that in mind,
but God does not remind us;
for him all this belongs to the past.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful
if we too could forget injuries,
if we could stop looking at the scars of the past,
if the pains suffered for one another
would only deepen our love?
May God deepen and bless our love,
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.
Go in peace
and have a heart for one another. R/ Thanks be to God.