Daily Gospel Reflection
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June 28, 2019
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.”
Although we are all sheep, I have found we must also shepherd each other.
Throughout my life, I have read this parable from the point of view of a lost sheep. I have so often felt lost, so it does not require much imagination for me to walk in the stray sheep’s hoof-prints. Recently, however, in moments of feeling lost, I meditate on the shepherd’s mindset and actions. Despite having a nearly full flock, this shepherd is willing to abandon all of them to reclaim the lost one.
I have never felt more like a shepherd than this past year, my first as a middle school math teacher with Teach for America. I often find myself the leader of a classroom with one (or two, three—admittedly sometimes six) straying from the pack. So often, I cling to the attention of the ninety-nine attentive sheep, while I haphazardly try to regain the lost sheep. The shepherd, however, provides a much better model for me: he ceaselessly seeks out the lost sheep until she is found.
We are all called to love each other throughout our lives. When a member of the fold is lost, we are called to seek them out with our whole hearts and truly celebrate upon her return.
My classroom reminds me that we are called to shepherd each other to heaven. My challenge today is to figure out how to love like the shepherd and devote my energy to returning the strays to the herd and rejoice when they return. How can I fully engage the lost and welcome her back into the fold? What does the shepherd’s love look like not only in my classroom, but in all of my relationships?
Each day I pray that I may better emulate the shepherd as I am, in turn, led by Christ the shepherd.
Prayer
Father, we honor the heart of your Son broken by human cruelty, yet the symbol of love’s triumph, pledge of all that we are called to be. Teach us to see Christ in the lives we touch, to offer him living worship by love-filled service to our brothers and sisters. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Irenaeus was a bishop who so thoroughly refuted a certain strain of heresy in his region that his words were used throughout the Church to guide the truth that has been handed on to us today.
He was born in 125 and was educated by St. Polycarp, who personally knew and learned from St. John. Irenaeus was sent as a missionary to what is now Lyons, France. Trading routes were leading to the development of that region, and the Church was growing there. Irenaeus was assigned to work as a priest under the bishop, St. Pothinus.
The region fell under persecution, and Irenaeus was chosen to travel to Rome to deliver a letter and speak with the pope about a matter. While he was away, Pothinus was killed, along with many of the other priests who worked with him. Irenaeus stayed in Rome until it was safe, and later he returned to Lyons as its new bishop.
He was bishop there for some 20 years, and expanded the Church in the area. He even spoke the native Celtic dialect instead of his own Greek. Certain deviations of the faith were spreading through the area, and Irenaeus was determined to refute them and guide his flock with the true faith. He learned every variation of the heresy and then explained all of the distorted beliefs in a large work that also described the true faith that came to him from the apostles and is contained in Scripture.
These heresies were from a strain of thought called Gnosticism, which seemed attractive to people because it claimed to offer them secret wisdom that was not available to everyone. Irenaeus said that he was determined to “strip the fox.” His work in defense of the faith spread rapidly and was used everywhere to refute gnostic belief, which was a major threat to the early faith.
It is believed that Irenaeus was martyred, but there is little evidence for this. He died around the year 202, and his relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
St. Irenaeus, you defended the early Church from secret sects and ensured the truth of our faith today—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Irenaeus is available for use under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. Last accessed March 19, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
