Wednesday, May 4, 2016

General Audience

This morning's General Audience began at 10:00am in Saint Peter's Square where the Holy Father, Pope Francis met with groups of pilgrims and the faithful from Italy and from every corner of the world.

In his speech, the Pope continued his meditations on mercy from the biblical perspective, focusing on the parable of the Good Shepherd (Lk 15:4-6).

After having summarized His catechesis in various languages, the Holy Father addressed greetings to each group of the faithful in attendance.

The General Audience concluded with the chanting of the Pater Noster and the Apostolic Blessing.


Catechesis of His Holiness, Pope Francis
for the General Audience

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

We all know the image of the Good Shepherd who places the lost sheep on his shoulders.  This icon has always represented Jesus' care and concern for sinners and the mercy of God which is never resigned to losing anyone.  The parable is told by Jesus in order to make people understand that proximity to sinners should not be a source of scandal, but on the contrary, it should evoke in all of us a series of reflections on how we should live our faith.  The story places us with sinners who are coming to Jesus in order to listen to him and with the doctors of the Law and the scribes who are suspicious that his behavior will deviate from the Law.

Our parable revolves around three figures: the shepherd, the wounded sheep and the rest of the flock, but the only one who acts is the shepherd, not the sheep.  The shepherd therefore is the only true hero and all the others depend on him.  The parable is introduced by a question: Which one among you, if you had a hundred sheep and lost one, would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go in search of the one that is lost, until you find it? (Lk 15:4)  There is a paradox which leads us to question the wisdom of the shepherd: is it wise to abandon the ninety-nine in order to go in search of one sheep?  And even more importantly, is it wise to leave the others not in a sheepfold but in the desert?  According to the biblical tradition, the desert is a place of death where it is difficult to find food and water, without shelter and at the mercy of wild beasts and thieves.  What can ninety-nine defenseless sheep do?  However, the paradox continues.  Jesus says that the shepherd, having found the sheep: carries it on his shoulders as he returns home, and he calls his friends and neighbors and says to them, 'Rejoice with me (Lk 15:6).  It seems that the shepherd does not return to the desert to find the rest of the sheep!  In his concern for the one sheep who was lost, it seems as though he has forgotten the other ninety-nine, but in reality, this is not the case.  The teaching that Jesus wants to give is rather that none of the sheep can be lost.  God's action is that of going in search of his children who are lost and then to celebrate and rejoice with them when they are found.  He has a burning desire: not even ninety-nine sheep can stop the shepherd and keep him enclosed within the sheepfold.  He might reason as follows: Let me make up a budget: I have ninety-nine of them so I've lost one, but that's not a great loss.  Instead, he goes in search of the one, because every one of us is very important to him and the one who is lost is the most in need, the most abandoned, the most rejected ... and he goes out to find her.  We have all been served notice: mercy toward sinners is the style with which God acts and He is absolutely faithful to this gift of mercy: nothing and no-one can distract him from his saving will.  God does not know our current culture of waste, He is not involved in any of that.  God never wastes anyone; God loves every one of us, he searches for everyone: one to one!  He does not know the phrase: disposable people because he is the essence of love and mercy.

The Lord's flock is always on a journey: we do not possess the Lord, we cannot create the illusion of ensnaring him in our schemes and in our strategies.  The shepherd will always be found with the lost sheep.  Thus the Lord goes searching where He wants to encounter us, not where we pretend to find him!  There is no other way to re-assemble the flock than to follow the path that the mercy of the shepherd points out.  While he searches for the lost sheep, he entices the other ninety-nine to participate in the re-unification of the flock.  In this way, he carries not only one sheep on his shoulders, but the entire flock follows the shepherd to his home for the celebration with his friends and neighbours.

We should reflect often on this parable, because in the Christian community, there is always someone who is missing, who has gone away, leaving an empty place.  Sometimes this is overwhelming and leads us to believe that it is an inevitable loss, an incurable illness.  This is the time when we run the risk of locking ourselves in the sheepfold, where we will no longer be able to smell the scent of the shepherd, but rather the stale air of being closed in!  And Christians?  We should never be closed in, because if we do, we will have the odour of having been closed up.  Never!  We must go out and not be closed in upon ourselves, in our little communities, in our parishes, considering ourselves to be the righteous ones.  This happens when we lose sight of the missionary impulse that carries us into encounters with others.  In Jesus' vision, there are no definitively lost sheep, but only those who go astray.  This is something that we need to understand well: for God, no one is definitively lost.  Never!  Even until the last moment of time, God is always searching.  Remember the good thief; only in the vision of Jesus is it possible for no one to be definitively lost.  The prospects therefore are entirely dynamic, open, stimulating and creative.  God urges us to go out in search of opportunities to embark upon a journey of fraternity.  No amount of distance can keep us apart from the shepherd; and no flock can turn its back on a brother.  Finding those who have been lost is the great joy of the shepherd, and the joy of God, but it is also the joy of the entire flock!  We are all the lost sheep who have been gathered together by the mercy of the Lord, called to gather the entire flock around Him!



This catechesis was then translated into various languages, and the Holy Father offered specific greetings to all those in attendance.  To English-speaking pilgrims, he said:

I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, particularly those from England, Scotland, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, China, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines, the Seychelles, Canada and the United States of America. In the joy of the Risen Lord, I invoke upon you and your families the loving mercy of God our Father. May the Lord bless you all!

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