Homily for Tuesday, 10 December 2013– Ferial

Tuesday of the 2nd week in Advent

Readings of the day: Isaiah 40:1-11; Psalm 96:1-2, 3, 10ac, 11-12, 13; Matthew 18:12-14

“What is your opinion?” Jesus asks his disciples at the beginning of today’s Gospel: If one sheep strays from the flock, would the shepherd not leave the ninety-nine sheep that did not stray to search for the one lost sheep?

I do not know how each of you would answer Jesus’ question, but my inclination is that no shepherd in his right mind would leave ninety-nine sheep vulnerable to the elements and to predator attack to search for one stray sheep!

Of course, Jesus’ rhetorical questions are meant to surprise us, as they were meant to surprise Jesus’ earliest disciples, as to the depth of God’s love and mercy for us.

Isaiah also uses surprise and the image of a shepherd to describe how much God loves us and desires that none of us be lost; that we all be welcomed; that we all be one. Isaiah writes in the midst of Israel’s exile and destruction. Jerusalem’s temple had been destroyed; its elites deported to Babylon. And yet Jerusalem, or Zion, was to be God’s “herald of good tidings.” Jerusalem was to proclaim the love and mercy of God.

Today, to proclaim the love and mercy of God continues to be our mission, even as we are all in need of this divine love and mercy ourselves. How do we accomplish our mission as heralds of the love and mercy of God? Shortly after his election as pope last March, Pope Francis called upon us as Christians to smell like the sheep, not to hide from our responsibility to seek out the lost; the outcasts; those who have been ostracized for whatever reason in our world and from our Church.

If we go out to smell like the sheep; if we go out intent upon even a small daily act of kindness or mercy, to each according to her or his capabilities; if we go out seeking to bring back the lost; the outcast; the sinner, we will have proclaimed God’s own love and mercy well. We will have lived the memory of our Good Shepherd who searches out and brings back the one lost member of the flock over the ninety-nine who have not strayed.

We will have lived the memory of this season of Advent, and preparation for Christmas, of the baby who as the supreme act of God’s love and mercy first came to us in a lowly manger. How is this for smelling like the sheep?