Memory of Jesus crucified

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Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Remembrance of Saint Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon and martyr (†202); he went to France from Anatolia to preach the Gospel.


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Luke 15,3-7

So he told them this parable: 'Which one of you with a hundred sheep, if he lost one, would fail to leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the missing one till he found it? And when he found it, would he not joyfully take it on his shoulders and then, when he got home, call together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, "Rejoice with me, I have found my sheep that was lost." In the same way, I tell you, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner repenting than over ninety-nine upright people who have no need of repentance.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Today the Church celebrates the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the liturgy helps us to contemplate the mystery of God's love through the heart of his Son who reveals himself to us as the heart of a good shepherd. The image of the shepherd is an image dear to the prophets and Ezekiel had already spoken of it: "For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out... I will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel" (Ez 34:11.13). The Gospel of Luke, as if to give an answer to the words of the prophet, reports the words of Jesus who identifies himself with the good shepherd who loves his sheep so much that he gives his own life for them. As the Gospel of John says, Jesus loves them and knows them one by one (Jn 10:3), not as an indistinct mass; in fact, he knows the voice, the name, the history, the needs of each of them, and on each he has placed all his affection and all his hope. In a society like ours that has become virtual, anonymous and individualistic, it is easy to be forgotten and to disappear. But the heart of Jesus does not forget anyone; each of us is loved and known by name by the Lord. But often we are moving away, and we find ourselves tired and oppressed, like those crowds who moved Jesus' heart to compassion, because they seemed to him like "sheep without a shepherd" (Mt 9:36). Jesus reminds that the good shepherd leaves the ninety-nine sheep in the sheepfold to come and look for the lost one. "I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed," said the prophet Ezekiel (Ez 34:16). Jesus does not abandon any of his sheep to their own destiny; Jesus always gathers them, keeps them and, perhaps not once but many times, had to leave the other ninety-nine sheep to find each one of us and put us on his shoulders.