From extemporaneous remarks during a catechesis given by Pope Francis on June 17 to the Diocese of Rome.
I want to tell you something.
In the Gospel there's that beautiful passage that tells us of the shepherd who, on returning to the sheepfold and realizing that a sheep is missing, leaves the 99 and goes to look for it, to look for the one.
But, brothers and sisters, we have one.
It's the 99 who we're missing!
We have to go out, we must go to them!
In this culture—let's face it—we only have one. We are the minority. And do we feel the fervour, the apostolic zeal to go out and find the other 99? This is a big responsibility and we must ask the Lord for the grace of generosity and the courage and the patience to go out, to go out and proclaim the Gospel.
The catechesis was reportedly inspired by these words from the First Letter of St. Paul to the Romans:
“For I am not ashamed of the Gospel. … We who were baptized … are not under the law but under grace.”
I find this alteration fascinating, and not a little unsettling. Has he turned the Gospel on its head here? Is this legitimate? Is it a commentary on the difference between the culture back then and the culture now?
When I think of the parable of the lost (singular) sheep, I often wonder about the ninety-nine being left without a shepherd. Are they, in fact, safe in their numbers? Maybe it's a sort of promise that the ones who stick together in the wilderness will, in fact, be okay, and the Shepherd will look out for the ones who have somehow struck out on their own; we should trust. I don't know; maybe if I knew more about sheep I'd get it.
Matthew's version
In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 18, the ninety-nine-and-one sheep are identified with "little ones" who, in context, are "those who believe in me" and have "become like little children:"
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.
“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea…
“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.
“What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish."
It's all stuff about how much God values every individual person, even (especially?) the insignificant or those who choose to make themselves insignificant, and his special care for those that "wander," or sin. It goes on with advice about dealing with sin and forgiving sinners:
“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
“Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven…
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times."
You get the impression that the earthly shepherds' part in going after the one lost sheep has a lot to do with instruction combined with ready forgiveness.
(I confess I'm not sure what Jesus means by "treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector." I assume that the inspired evangelist knew what that meant. Sounds like a question for a historian.)
Anyway, notice the question that Jesus uses the parable to answer: "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" The parable comes late in his answer; after he explains that one must become "little" and "lowly" to be the greatest, he uses the sheep parable to explain that one individual is very valuable to God.
Luke's version
Luke places this parable in an entirely different context. From Chapter 15:
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent."
Here the lost sheep parable is an answer to the question the Pharisees and teachers of the law did not ask aloud: "Why do you welcome sinners and eat with them?"
The lost sheep who is found, who inspires the rejoicing, is "the sinner who repents." I find it interesting that the Pharisees and teachers of the law only asked about Jesus eating with "sinners," but Jesus answered as if the question was "Why do you eat with repentant sinners?"
If they'd asked it that way, they would have seen it was a stupid question. But maybe not; maybe the Pharisees don't really believe in repentance, so they can't see the difference.
I think this same mistake is often made today. It's really quite remarkable how many of the interlocutors' questions have turned out to be repeated over the centuries.
The "rejoicing" Jesus identifies is over not sinners, but "sinners who repent;" not lost sheep who remain lost, but lost sheep who are found and carried home. The ninety-nine sheep left to fend for themselves (or each other, anyway) let us know that even one repentant sinner is tremendously valuable. It is essentially the same point made in Matthew; but the difference in context — because the parable is in answer to different questions in the two Gospels — gives it a different flavor.
Francis's twist
… So here we are with Francis's "parable," which he turns on its head: Now the many are missing and the few are faithful. Now it isn't the shepherd who leaves the faithful to go in search of the lone wanderer — but the few faithful sheep told to disperse courageously "to the outskirts" (Francis's words) where they are to proclaim the Gospel to them.
What's different?
Well, to start with: In Jesus's version, the shepherd is still present as a walking, talking, human teacher.
In this modern-day version, we have no visible shepherd. We've been wandering (all together, "found") in the wilderness without him. (What's he doing? Off finding lost sheep from the fold and bringing them back one at a time?)
There's a couple of ways we could read this. One might be to wonder if Francis has ever actually spent any time around sheep, and if this departure from the prepared script were really all that well-considered.
But giving the man the benefit of the doubt, we could consider it a reminder of the lessons from the original parable, flipped a little bit because of the numbers.
Back then, the "righteous" were (apparently) mainstream and the "sinners" were (apparently) fringe. Jesus could make the point that a few sinners are at least as valuable as a whole lot of righteous people; that is to say, that value (when it comes to persons) doesn't scale linearly.
Today (Francis says), sin is mainstream and "those who believe" are fringe. Depends where in the world you are, okay, but fair enough. Probably true in Italy. But maybe when you're a righteous fringe you're especially prone to thinking yourself extra special. Extra valuable. The Remnant. The One Percent.
Maybe there's a huge temptation to turn inward and cluster into a little protective bunch.
I don't know. Do sheep do that?
Anyway, if the lessons of the parable of the sheep (original version) are that
(1) greatness in heaven belongs to those who become little or insignificant on earth and
(2) an individual repentant sinner has inestimable worth, maybe more than a person who doesn't need to repent
then this message of Francis — that we the "found" sheep must go out to bring back the "lost" sheep by proclaiming the Gospel — carries with it a subtext of "do it not as a great person but as an insignificant person, with instruction and ready forgiveness, and acknowledge the potentially inestimable worth of the sinner you seek to instruct and forgive."
If you're a "found" sheep out in search of a "lost" sheep, then the lost sheep's safe return is perhaps to be treated as if it is more valuable than yours.
Going to the outskirts is not going to be without risk for any of us.
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