midst of the disciples, and said, “I assure you, that, unless you change, and become like
little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble, like this
child, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and whoever receives such a child, in my
name, receives me. See that you do not despise any of these little ones; for I tell you, their
angels in heaven continually see the face of my heavenly Father. What do you think of this?
If someone has a hundred sheep and one of them strays, won’t he leave the ninetynine on
the hillside, and go to look for the stray one? And I tell you, when he finally finds it, he is
more pleased about it, than about the ninety-nine that did not go astray. It is the same
with your Father in heaven. Your Father in heaven doesn’t want even one of these little
ones to perish.

Reflect

“Finding the lost sheep.” Along our journey, we have seen the first three discourses
found in the Gospel of Mathew: the Sermon on the Mount (cf. Mt. 5–7), the Missionary
Discourse (cf. Mt. 10) and the Parabolic Discourse (cf. Mt. 13). Today, we begin reflecting
on the fourth discourse, the Discourse on the Church. In today’s Gospel, Jesus narrated
the parable of the lost sheep. It is but fitting to first reflect on the challenge, for those of
us in the Church, to always look for the lost sheep. The man who has lost a sheep would
leave the ninety-nine sheep in the hillside to look for the lost one. Here, Jesus appeared
to challenge all the Church people to find and take care of the last, the least and the lost.
Jesus founded a Church that seeks the lost. It is sad if we have already become too
complacent about our mission as a Church and not anymore willing to go out of our
comfort zones. Often, we tend to be already contented in having the “ninety-nine sheep”
with us, unwilling to take the risk to find the lost. We may further reflect on the fact that
nowadays, there are too many lost ones.

© Copyright Bible Diary 2024