Tuesday in the 2nd Week of Advent, December 10, 2024

Matthew 18, 12-14

Jesus said to his disciples: “What is your opinion? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray? And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray. In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost.”

The verses that make up the Gospel Reading for today’s Mass come from a section of St. Matthew’s Gospel in which the Lord is teaching about the gravity with which we must act in regards to our salvation.  Here, we read of God’s care that we be saved.  In truth, in the Lord’s telling, Almighty God acts like a desperate shepherd who spares no effort in recovering his lost sheep.  He rushes about in search of the sheep before a wolf or a lion gets it — a very real possibility in first century Israel.  And when he does find it, he rejoices as though he himself was the sheep that was found and saved.  We should never underestimate the desire of God to have us in heaven, and his joy for our presence there.

“In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost.”  Having learned of God’s passionate longing for us to be with him in heaven, we might wonder about  the Lord’s teaching about hell: “Strive to enter [heaven] by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able” (Luke 13, 24).  Those who do not pass through the narrow door will suffer eternally: “The Son of man will send his angels, and they will gather . . . all evildoers, and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth” (Matthew 13, 41-42).  

The answer is found in Matthew 22, 14: “Many are called but few are chosen.”  This phrase uses a Hebrew idiom.  Its meaning is, “All are called but most refuse to come.”  It is God’s will that all be saved but he does not force anyone to live in such a way that they may enter heaven.  Put another way, all humans possess free will, and God respects it and our choices so that we bear full responsibility for them.  Those who use their free will to do the will of God will be saved.  Those who use their free will to serve themselves will not.

Reading the verses about the shepherd should make us feel compassion for God who loves us so and yet whose love is so often rejected.  Let us have mercy on him and go back with him to the pastures where we will most safely graze.