Gospel (Lk 15,1-10) - At that time, all the tax collectors and sinners approached Jesus to listen to him. The Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying: "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." »And he told them this parable: «Who among you, if he has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go in search of the lost one, until he finds it? When he has found her, full of joy, he carries her on his shoulders, goes home, calls his friends and neighbors and says to them: "Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep, the one that was lost". I tell you: so there will be joy in heaven over one sinner who converts, more than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of conversion. »Or, what woman, if she has ten coins and loses one, does not light the lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until he finds her? And after finding it, he calls his friends and neighbors and says: "Rejoice with me, because I have found the coin I lost." Thus, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

Chapter 15 of Luke – opened by this passage – is dedicated to narrating God's merciful attitude. These first ten verses narrate two of the parables of mercy: the lost sheep and the lost coin. In the first, Jesus presents the Father as a shepherd who has lost one of his ninety-nine sheep. Well, the shepherd leaves the ninety-nine remaining in the sheepfold and sets out to look for the lost one. We could say that there is a law of mercy that establishes a right for the sinner: it is the right to be helped before the righteous. We are faced with the true revolution brought by the Gospel. And in a world where meritocracy is presented as the ideal of social organization - and there is no doubt that it should be taken into consideration - the Gospel presents the paradoxical nature of the mystery of mercy and forgiveness. In the second parable, the Father is imagined as a housewife who has lost a coin and starts looking for it until he finds it, thus showing once again the privilege of love that God claims for the little ones. And both, the shepherd and the woman, after finding the lost sheep and the coin, call their neighbors to celebrate. God does not want death but the conversion of sinners, that is, for them to change their lives and return to him. And this requires a merciful heart on the part of the disciples and a capacity for love similar to that of God. And Jesus concludes: "There will be joy in heaven over one sinner who converts." It is the celebration most heartfelt by God. For this reason, he begins to seek, or rather beg for, love. He does it with us too: let us let him find us.