A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Luke. This is a continuation, of course, from morning to morning. The tax collectors and sinners. Notice how the two are made synonyms. So the tax collectors and sinners were all gathered around to hear Jesus, At which the pharisees, these are the good people, at which the pharisees and the scribes murmured.
They complained. This man welcomes sinners. He even eats with them. Then Jesus addressed this parable to the pharisees and the scribes. Who among you, if he has a 100 sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the 99 in the wasteland and follow the lost one until he finds it.
And when he finds it, he puts it on his shoulders in jubilation, carries it home himself. Once arrived home, he invites friends and neighbors in and says to them, rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep. I tell you, Jesus continues, there will likewise be more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner than over 99 righteous people who have no need to repent. And then our lord continued. He gave them another parable.
What woman, if she has 10 silver pieces and loses one of them, does not light a lamp and sweep the house searching until she finds what she had lost. And when she finds it, she calls in her friends and her neighbors saying, rejoice with me. I have found that silver piece I lost. I tell you, our lord concludes, there will be the same kind of joy with the angels of god over one repentant sinner. And this is the gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. Whenever I read this particular passage, these two parables, a number of thoughts occur to me, of course. But one that strikes me always is this, if a poor little old sheep wanders away from the flock, gets lost, when finally the shepherd finds and picks it up, it's not likely to be in good shape. It's very likely to be hungry, maybe close to starvation.
It's probably had no water. It's torn and bleeding from getting through the lower briars and bushes. Its feet probably are all sore, if not bleeding, from walking and walking in desperation. And of course, if you could speak of the psychology of a sheep, it's pretty confused, pretty confused. And so when the good shepherd comes and picks the little old wandering sheep up, all wounded and torn and bleeding and confused, and puts it on his shoulders and carries it home, what are we dealing with here?
What are we dealing with? Are we dealing only with the sheep being rescued? See, that's how it's usually interpreted, and that's right. That's what our that's the main point of our lord's remarks, that Christ goes after the wandering the lost sheep. And of course, we have Thompson's Hound of Heaven.
That's matchless, developing that theme. But I very seldom ever hear this point emphasized. When the shepherd puts the takes up the sheep, he takes up a sheep that was lost. That is true. He takes the lost sheep back to the fold, in the security of the fold.
That is true. But what is not generally even pointed out is this, you're dealing with a wounded sheep. That little animal may be back in the fold and secure, may have the food and the drink and the security of the sheepfold. It'll have the TLC of the shepherd. But it is still a wounded sheep.
It's still got the wounds on its feet and the cuts and the scars on its hide. It's still got brambles in its wool. Very likely there's some thorns in its mouth where it was trying to eat. And the fact that it's back in the fold and safe in the fold doesn't mean it's not still a wounded sheep. Have you thought about that?
Now I want to connect that with a prayer we often say, that our blessed Lord and savior heals the wounds of sin. It's one thing to be saved, had be back in the fold. It's another thing to have the wounds of sin healed. Not infrequently. I I've heard, and I'm sure you we we've all experienced this.
We don't have to depend on other people. Someone will say, of course, I forgive that person. They've had a real knockdown, drag out fight, and the man or the woman says, yes, of course I forgive. After all, I couldn't go to confession without being without wanting to forgive. But I can't bring myself to forget.
I can't bring myself to feel good towards that person. We've all experienced this. A man or a woman may be living in some kind of a state of sin, and I'm not talking about merely the sixth commandment. You know, are other nine commandments. And then for some good reason, I guess it's a good reason, they reform.
They turn back to our lord. They go to confession. They get themselves straightened out. They go to the sacraments, and they still sometimes look back to the flesh pots of Egypt. And notice we can say this about ourselves.
We could say, Lord, why did you bring me out into this arid desert where I'm going to die of hunger and thirst? When we could have eat, at least back in Egypt as slaves, we could at least have eaten well and had a roof over our heads and have enough water to drink. But you bring us out here to kill us, to let us die, you know this is the story. This is the story of the exodus. And we're all there.
We're all right there. Our blessed lord not only saves us from sin, he cures the wounds of sin. Sin leaves a wound, and that wound can take various forms. And we shouldn't be astonished, we shouldn't be startled, we shouldn't lack confidence. It's no proof, it's no evidence of your sincere contrition to bear the wounds of sin.
Contrition doesn't mean that I feel, I feel holy and entirely, gloriously happy in turning back to God. Just you see, this is based upon a false conception of sin. This is based upon the conception of sin as something horrible, despicable, something deadly, and it's all of these things. Sin is all of these things. But but the fact of the matter is that as far as we are when we are guilty of sin, it isn't because we pursued the ugly, the horrible, the blasphemous.
It's because we pursued something that gave us pleasure or happiness or gave us some kind of comfort. And when you turn away from sin, how can you say that did not give me comfort, that did not make me happy, this did not make me joyous, that this was not an exhilarating experience? You can't deny it. And who says you should? So don't be don't be startled with what I call the wounds of sin.
But remember, Christ came to save us from sin and to cure us of the wounds of sin. We say this prayer very often in the introductory prayers of the mass, but we don't think about it very much until we get it hit between the eyes on our for ourselves. Because this can be a tremendously disturbing element in a person's religious life. This is my point. Because they turn back to God, they make a good confession, they take up the practice of the church, they try to say prayers during the day, And lo and behold, when when they try to be most holy, when they when we try to be closest to God, our imagination and our memories take over.
And we are remembering some of these joys of the land and the flesh parts of Egypt. And I'm not talking just about the sixth commandment. And so let us take comfort in this, that Christ came to save us. From what? From sin?
Yes. To preserve us to salvation? Yes. But also to cure the wounds of sin. And that is something, for the most part, only god can do, just as only god can bring forgiveness of sin.
In the name of the father, and the son, and the holy spirit. Amen.