‘Celebrate with me, for I have found my lost sheep!’ I tell you, in the same way, there will be more rejoicing in
heaven over one repentant sinner, than over ninety-ninedecent people, who do not need to repent.

Reflection:

Pope Benedict XVI (Ratzinger,Behold the Pierced One) places the Sacred Heart right at the center of the
Easter Mystery, which over turns the understanding of heart as the organ of self-preservation:

“The task of the heart isself-preservation, holding together what is its own. The pierced Heart of Jesus has
also truly ‘overturned’ (cf.Hos 11:8) this definition. This Heart is not concerned withself-preservation but with
self surrender.It saves the world by opening itself. The collapse ofthe opened Heart is the content of the Easter
mystery. The Heartsaves, indeed, but it saves by giving itself away. Thus, inthe Heart of Jesus, the center of
Christianity is set before us. It expresses everything,all that is genuinely new and revolutionary in the New Covenant.
This Heart calls toour heart. It invites us to step forth out of the futile attempt of self-preservation and, by joining
in the task of love, by handing ourselves over to him and with him, to discover the fullness of love which alone is
eternity and which alone sustains the world.”

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