Thursday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
The reading from the gospel records the parable of the good shepherd going after the lost sheep. Jesus asks the question: “What one of you would leave the 99 in the desert and go after the lost sheep.” Those who were familiar with herding animals would know that if you returned with half your flock after a season in the pasture, you had beat the odds. So, the answer would be that no one would be that stupid to leave the 99 and go after one lost sheep. But that is the punch of the parable. The lost, the broken, the hurt, those undesirable people are the object of God’s attention. The parable would have surprised those who heard it, and it surprises us today. Our presumption is that bigger is better, and what has the potential for greater publicity becomes the model. We often forget that the image of growth for the Kingdom of God is a mustard seed or a grain wheat, not a multinational corporation.