That one of these little ones be lost

Is 40,1-11; Ps 95,1-3.10-13; Mt 18,12-14.
11 DECEMBER

Every day, having arrived the evening, every disciple of Jesus should put his conscience before his God, and make the same profession of truth and justice made by the Apostle Paul, before the Bishops of Asia, whom he has summoned to Miletus, for the farewell.

When they came to him, he addressed them, “You know how I lived among you the whole time from the day I first came to the province of Asia. I served the Lord with all humility and with the tears and trials that came to me because of the plots of the Jews, and I did not at all shrink from telling you what was for your benefit, or from teaching you in public or in your homes. I earnestly bore witness for both Jews and Greeks to repentance before God and to faith in our Lord Jesus. But now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem. What will happen to me there I do not know, except that in one city after another the holy Spirit has been warning me that imprisonment and hardships await me. Yet I consider life of no importance to me, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to bear witness to the gospel of God’s grace. “But now I know that none of you to whom I preached the kingdom during my travels will ever see my face again. And so I solemnly declare to you this day that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you, for I did not shrink from proclaiming to you the entire plan of God.

Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock of which the holy Spirit has appointed you overseers, in which you tend the church of God that he acquired with his own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come among you, and they will not spare the flock. And from your own group, men will come forward perverting the truth to draw the disciples away after them. So be vigilant and remember that for three years, night and day, I unceasingly admonished each of you with tears. And now I commend you to God and to that gracious word of his that can build you up and give you the inheritance among all who are consecrated. I have never wanted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. You know well that these very hands have served my needs and my companions. In every way I have shown you that by hard work of that sort we must help the weak, and keep in mind the words of the Lord Jesus who himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive'” (At 20, 18-35).

Even Jesus, before moving towards his capture, condemnation and crucifixion, puts his conscience before the Father and declares himself innocent of the perdition of Judas.

When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely. I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth (Jn 17,12-19).

In our times, not only do we no longer live the evangelizing mission by renouncing the most pure faith and truth in Christ the Lord, the one and only Redeemer and Saviour of the world, with our false theories on sin, morality, justice, conversion and on every mystery of our faith, but we are also witnessing a massive exodus from the Church. We are responsible for those who are lost by our fault. Every one of our false thoughts about Christ and the Church makes us guilty forever.

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? And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray. In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost.

Every disciple of Jesus, according to the mystery assumed, concerning the sacrament received, is obliged to carry out his mission with the utmost care, so that not only nobody moves away from the Church for the transformation of the truth, but also for his holily lived mission all the sheep of the Father enter the sheep’s fold of the Lord.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints ensure that Christians truly live their mission.