Lk 15:3-7
So Jesus told them this parable: “Who among you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, will not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and seek the lost one till he finds it? And finding it, will he not joyfully carry it home on his shoulders? Then he will call his friends and neighbors together, and say, ‘Celebrate with me, for I have found my lost sheep!’ I tell you, in the same way, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one repentant sinner, than over ninety-nine decent people, who do not need to repent.
REFLECTION
The human heart seems to be, everywhere and at all times, the symbol of love. One has only to enter a bookstore around the time of Valentine’s Day to find the pictures of hearts everywhere. Nowadays fans of singers or actors express their love for their idol by forming a heart with their fingers. And, in all literatures, dozens of expressions refers to the heart as being the organ considered, in the quaint expression of the dictionaries, “the seat of emotions, especially love” (Collins).
When Jansenism, that 17th century heresy which championed a heartless God, spread throughout Europe, Christ appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and urged her to spread the devotion to his Sacred Heart as an antidote to Jansenism. Fortunately this devotion was instrumental in correcting our image of a heartless God. So much so that nowadays many Christians find slightly redundant this devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, since few Christians still see God as a heartless God.
Yet, it is consoling to remember that Christ had a human heart just like ours, capable of feeling all that we feel…
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