Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent

Saint Anthony
in Mexican art

Lectionary: 182

"What is your opinion?
If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray,
will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills
and go in search of the stray?

I suspect the efficient businessman, in the habit of managing portfolios and risk-assessment, might not want his shepherd to leave the ninety-nine in the hills, vulnerable to lions, wolves and poachers, to search for one stray sheep.  He might conclude it's not worth the risk. 
But Jesus is not a business person and he is in the habit of taking enormous risks for his charges. In the Gospel of John we discover how scrupulous Jesus is about saving all the sheep. 

My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.’  (10:27-30)

‘I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. (15:6)

While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. (15:12)

I hear in these words the fierce dedication of an obedient son who will keep and treasure every gift his father has given him. Jesus loves us; that is certain. And his love for us impels him to save us even at the cost of his own life. But even more important to him is his obedience to the Father. 

Any tyrant might insist that he loves his own subjects and will never surrender them to any other tyrant. We have seen several of those sorts in recent history. Moamar Qaddafi of Libya, among others, preferred death to surrendering his authority. And I am sure he supposed he had a mandate from his Allah. 

But Jesus truly knows the Father; he truly loves the Father. And he treasures us as his own because  the Father has given us to him. 

He speaks for us too. Whether we think well of ourselves and our fidelity or not, Jesus stands up for us: "they have kept your word." The challenge for us is not to make a liar of Jesus. 

During this season of Advent we hear the demands of justice and the pleading of mercy. Today, especially, we have heard the warm, reassuring invitation of God:

Comfort, give comfort to my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her
that her service is at an end,
her guilt is expiated;
Indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD
double for all her sins.

We have heard Jesus insist, "it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost." With these reassurances we rush forward into this too-brief season of Advent, doing penance and preparing for the moment of salvation.