Contemplating today's Gospel
Liturgic day: Tuesday 2nd of Advent
Comment: Fr. Joaquim MONRÓS i Guitart (Tarragona, Spain)
«It is the same with your Father in heaven: there they don't want even one of these little ones to be lost»
Today, Jesus makes it known that God wants all men to be saved and «doesn't want even one of these little ones to be lost» (Mt 18:14). With the parable of the shepherd who looks for the sheep that has gotten lost, he presents us with a figure that deeply moved the first Christians. In the title page of the Catechism of the Catholic Church we find, engraved, the figure of Jesus the Good Shepherd who as early as in the catacombs of Rome is present among the first images of the Lord.
God's desire for our salvation is so strong that, from the uttering of these words, up to His unconditional sacrifice of the Cross, it is Christ who is looking for us so that we can —with complete freedom— come back to his friendship. We Christians need to share this same desire: that all be saved and get to know the Truth! As Josemaria Escrivá liked to say, «we are all sheep and shepherd». There are people —our husband or wife, our children, relatives and friends, etc.— for whom we may be the only chance they have of recovering the happiness of faith and a life of grace.
We can always leave aside ninety-nine percent of the things we are doing, to pray for and help that person whom we have near, that we love and that we know is missing something in their soul.
With our prayer and mortification, and with our loving faith, they can achieve the grace of conversion, just as Saint Monica got her son Augustine to become the "first modern man", one who knows how to explain in The Confessions the way in which grace acted in the conversion that would lead to his sanctity
We ask the Mother of the Good Shepherd for the joy of many conversions.
