Daily Gospel Reflection
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June 27, 2025
Jesus addressed this parable to the Pharisees and scribes:
“What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them
would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert
and go after the lost one until he finds it?
And when he does find it,
he sets it on his shoulders with great joy
and, upon his arrival home,
he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them,
‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’
I tell you, in just the same way
there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents
than over ninety-nine righteous people
who have no need of repentance.”
Reflection
What if today, on the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, we receive the familiar parable of the lost sheep anew, as a revelation of Jesus’ heart? As he offers this parable, Jesus repeatedly draws attention to his interior joy. It must be an intense, deliberate joy that Jesus wants to offer for our contemplation. He mentions the “great joy” of the shepherd who sets a lost sheep on his shoulders.
Jesus does not keep this joy for himself; rather, it overflows. The shepherd’s voice flows tenderly from his inner wellspring to anyone within earshot, to his “friends and neighbors” and to, perhaps, the Pharisees and scribes as they listen to Jesus: “Rejoice with me!” His joy rises even to heaven, where there is joy “over one sinner who repents.”
As I look into my own heart, I see places of worry, shame, and sin that, on this day, I want to identify with the “lost sheep.” Perhaps we also have in our hearts a “Pharisee” or “scribe” and some “friends and neighbors.” In an age of distraction and the buffered self, Jesus tells us that he longs for our whole hearts. He longs to regather all the scattered corners of our interior terrain, so he can unite everything in us—from the sheep to the buffered bystanders—in the joy of his heart.
So often we ground our identity in performing, earning, and achieving rather than simply in being loved. Today, on this Solemnity, let’s ask Jesus to ground us in his own heart: What is it like for you, Lord, to know the inviolable love of the Father and to love freely in return? I want to slow down and listen silently within to his tender voice: “My heart is a land of peace. Abide in me, and let me search in you for whatever is lost. I will find it and bring it back, so that ‘your joy may be full’ in mine (Jn 15:11), and ‘so that where I am, you also may be’ (Jn 14:3), engulfed in the mystery of the Father’s love.”
Prayer
Lord Jesus, like the angels in heaven, may our hearts rejoice over the sinner who repents, over the doubting who find faith, over the despairing who find hope, over the lonely who find love. With you, may we zealously seek out the lost of our world, so that, like us, they may find their true home in you. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Cyril of Alexandria was at the center of one of the great dramas in Christian theology, and it is thanks to his courage and clear vision that our beliefs about Jesus have been faithfully passed on to us.
He was born in Alexandria, Egypt, in the late 300s. His uncle led the Church in Alexandria, and when he died, Cyril was named bishop there. Cyril was known as a vigilant defender of the faith, and kept careful watch over the Christian communities that were under his supervision.
In 428 a monk and priest named Nestorius was named archbishop of Constantinople, a city that was the seat of the empire. Nestorius began proclaiming beliefs about Jesus that claimed he was really two persons—divine and human—and that the divine person of Jesus simply inhabited the human part of him. In short, he was teaching that Jesus was God who walked on earth wearing a human body like a suit. As a consequence, he said, Mary should not be called Mother of God, but only mother of the man, Jesus.
Cyril objected and raised the matter with the pope. The pope called a meeting in Rome to examine the claims and sided with Cyril, and had Cyril deliver the verdict to Nestorius, who was to be excommunicated unless he retracted his claims. Nestorius refused.
In 431 a large council was gathered at Ephesus to decide the matter once and for all—Cyril led the council and acted as the pope’s representative. Nestorius was in town, but refused to attend. In his absence, the council condemned his works and excommunicated him.
The story does not end there. A group of some 40 bishops from Antioch arrived to the council late, and supported Nestorius. They were not accepted to the council, so they formed their own council in town and claimed to depose Cyril.
Both sides appealed to the emperor. Confused, the emperor had both Cyril and Nestorius jailed until it could all be sorted out.
Finally, representatives from the pope arrived and explained the matter to the emperor, and Cyril was released and restored to honor. Nestorius was sent back to Antioch to retire to his monastery, and he was later further exiled to the desert. The group of bishops from Antioch reconciled with Cyril and gave a statement of their orthodoxy.
Until he died in 444, Cyril maintained the faith that was handed to him from the apostles. Even his contemporaries knew him to be a great defender of the faith. Because of his strong and clear leadership, the declarations of the Council of Ephesus continue to guide our faith today. Thanks to Cyril’s leadership, we understand Jesus’ Incarnation to mean that Jesus was fully God and fully man—one person with two natures.
This may seem like a semantic abstraction, but the implications are tremendous for Christian spirituality. In the Incarnation, God fully joined our humanity in the person of Jesus. This was not God paying us a visit or pretending to be human for a while—God became human in every way except for sin. This means that every part of our humanity has the potential to connect us with the divine—we can find God in beauty and goodness, in relationships and learning truth, for example. Even our daily experience—the mundane progression of our days—can be a source of connection to the divine for us.
St. Cyril of Alexandria has been named a doctor of the Church, a title given to 37 saints who are known for elucidating the faith by their words or example—he is known as the Doctor of the Incarnation. His relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
St. Cyril of Alexandria, you guided the Church through heresy and handed us the faith we live today—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Cyril of Alexandria available for use under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Last accessed March 19, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
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