Seems to me that we must exert our imaginations about one aspect of the parable of the Lost Sheep in order to grasp the parable’s full significance.
The aspect I have in mind is the extreme contrast between the state in which the 99 sheep find themselves and the state of the one little lost sheep.
To a statistician or an economist, the parable might not make any sense at all. “Wait a minute. 99 on one side. One on the other. Take the 99 to the bank and be done with it.”
But economists, statisticians, and sociologists do not know everything about the art of shepherding. The crucial difference between the 99 and the one is that the 99 will be safe, at day’s end, in a sheepfold, protected from wolves and robbers.
But the one which lagged behind at some point during the day faces the gravest danger, as the sun sets. The little creature will certainly not survive the night, out all by itself on a hillside. It is defenseless and very tasty-looking.
The wealth of the shepherd lies in the sheep. The sheep are the shepherd’s bank account. 99% of his wealth is safe. 1% will certainly be lost–if he doesn’t head back out into the wilderness, by the light of the setting sun, to find the poor, lost, confused, little bleating creature.
The chances of him finding it are not all that great. So if he does, he experiences some pretty serious happiness.
As sheep, of course, we see instantly that we want to be safe among the 99. The 99 pray daily for the Pope. The 99 go to Mass every weekend, practically on auto-pilot. The 99 love Jesus and His Church more than money, more than sex, more than life itself. After all, we have immortal souls to keep safe. An American Express Card can’t do us any good after we’re dead.
But the Lord loves the one. He loves the 99, no doubt; He wants the 99 as safe as they can be. He doesn’t love the 99 any less than He loves the one. But He loves that little one. He goes out into the cold and dangerous evening twilight, like Han Solo went out after Luke on the ice-planet Hoth, at the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back.
The Lord wants 100 safe sheep. Not 99. A 99% Safety Rating is not enough for God. It has to be 100. The Lord will sooner die than be satisfied with a 99% Safety Rating for His sheep.
Father Mark White Blog 
Father Mark,
Gee, I’m not so sure I want to be the FIRST; it might imply that I’m the ONE lost sheep; and the other NINETY-NINE are content in his LOVE, while I’m off wandering in the wilderness.
Ah, but dat don’t make no nevermind; HE’s the decider, not me. Besides, HE’s already told us that the self-assured might very well miss the mark; and HE asked us to do our best, and leave the rest to HIM.
AND he urges us to choose LIFE, through HIM, and with HIM and in HIM; and I do so desperately choose.
In God we trust.
LIH,
joe
Father Mark,
Ah, what the heck, as long as we’re on the subject, your “Tauntaun” sounded enough like “Tonton Macoute” to prompt a look up [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonton_Macoute ].
If the current revelations regarding the use of “Homeland Security” concerns to enable spying on our own people, and if the current use of the IRS to persecute conservatives, and if the current use of the legal system to systematically remove all semblances of traditional organized-religion morality from society doesn’t remind people of Papa Doc, and of others (e.g., Adolf Hitler) whose paranoia has driven them to illegality, immorality, and the crippling of their nations through dissembling, misinformation, lying, and the creation of totalitarian states, then there is no hope for us poor sheep.
Der ain’t nuttin’ humans can’t mess up.
In God we trust.
LIH,
joe
p.s., How was that second paragraph as a sentence?
lih,
j.