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The lost sheep
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This December day was cold and rainy, quite dull. This part
of the Gospel, the lost sheep parable was so much known by our
assembly. Every body feels he knows it and thinks he can say
it almost by heart.
However it was a memorable moment, full of charm and grace that
we will remember for a long time. " Why be afraid of
God after such a story, with God taking so much care of us?"
said a woman, citing the opposite saying of the late Paul VI:"
At the end of my life, I tremble to meet my Judge. And why speak
in this period of Advent of reconciliation, of penance? For me
this time is mainly a time of meetings"
A second comment astonished many. At a time of the controversial
election of the President of the United States, I see in this
text the "managing" ability of God, can we give
him the title of the manager of the year?. Today a responsible
manager is more often some body who makes people redundant for
restructuring the company. In the mean time we speak of "citizen
companies", careful about human resources and benefiting
of much confidence. In the Gospel, the good shepherd does not
accept the loss of one single sheep. He just cannot do it. He
gets people on their feet again, looking for some progress.
And also many other enlightening words. But the best one for
me came from the oldest amongst us who said with a timid voice:"
In fact in the text it is not said of any fault of the lost sheep.
It could have well been the victim of an accident" I
suddenly understood how much my reading of this parable is made
of presupposed culpability, almost like a miserable, despicable
subject of God.
It was still raining, but I left feeling warm already paraphrasing
an other text: "the reading of the Gospel in the assembly
of the Church is like a treasure from which every body can always
profit from the old and the new" |