善牧的寓言​
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離開99隻去尋找另外那走失的一隻，說明我們和普世大眾的關係，我們自身的救贖和解放與那走失、貧困、被邊緣化的人的救贖和解放有著深切的關係，當我們聽到這個寓言，牧羊人:天主，優先去尋找那走失的羊，我們知道了打破藩籬的奧跡:那些貧困、被邊緣化、被遺忘而失去希望的人，是天主所心愛的。耶穌明白的告訴我們「那些小羊走失，並不是天父的旨意」。
     
當我們更深入了解這個羊迷失的寓言故事，我們看清生命深層的意義以也更了解我們生活的模式。身為人， 並非生來就能了解神:天父，祂是完全不可知的、是無法用任何在我們的腦海中可想出的類別去解釋。大部分的宗教也都同意這點。

但是，在基督徒的信仰中，神可以用人的方式被了解，因為神以人身降生在世上，所以可以用人世間熟悉的方式被了解，耶穌基督並沒有過著和這個塵世完全無交集的生活，反而祂一頭栽進這個世間，以祂身負的使命來改造它。

從耶穌基督身上，我們看到了天主不可言表的玄妙，祂身俱爆發性的力量，將銀河投擲到太空，同時， 祂也溫柔擁抱那些被排除在外、無依無靠的、被這世界遺棄的人。沒有其他的寓言比善牧這個寓言更清楚且毫不含糊地表達這種激進的，甚至令人不安的真相。

當我們談論靈性或靈修時，在我們談論的那一刻，我們洞察到現實的本質，並且開始喜愛那現實。人的一生中，就如Annie Dillard告訴我們的「心不容易改變，所以要用心慢慢學習，如何去愛、去愛誰」。

我們雖然沒有天生就能了解天主是誰，但是我們生來就賦予探索奧跡的能力，我們被創造時，在自我的核心，就有了一個不完整、未完成、空虛的缺口，使我們對奧跡能徹底開啟心扉。我們也因為渴望更多:一種超越我們自我的東西，而被驅使，就如聖奧古斯汀(St. Augustine)說的「我們藉著自己的奧跡來尋求一個偉大奧跡:天主」。

耶穌基督的寓言，打碎了我們對現實的僵化的看法，顛覆我們的認知，為我們開啟了神的奧跡之門。這些寓言充分描述天主的慈悲是一個驚喜、也在我們的想像中締造了衝擊。

善者:耶穌的寓言很快就點到了「精髓」，雖然只有5句，迷失羊的寓言之主題，就像失去的錢幣和寶的寓言一樣，是關於「回家(悔過)」、關於我們的迷失。關於找尋和被找到、關於找到天主和被天主找到。在靈修上，是一件大好消息:天主藉著耶穌讓我們得以「回家」。這個寓言也說明了我們如何和聖潔的奧跡、神聖的力量的和好。

當我們開始「回家(悔過)」時，我們從二個面向得到解放，也就是個人內心的轉變以及(協助)社會的改變。我們轉向天主，如同祂是我們生命的舵手，我們也轉向別人來提供蘊含悲憫心的服務。與天主深切的關係，得以讓我們轉向他人並服務他們。

當耶穌問道:「你覺得如果一個人有100隻羊，其中有一隻走失了，他難道不會離開那在山坡上的其他的99隻，去找尋那迷路的一隻嗎? 」 這引導我們在用心慢慢的學習去愛誰、如何去愛。祂反轉了我們的期望，如果使用現今的「唯物論」，可能會得到完全相反的結論。為何離開那99隻?這個寓言將我們從長期劃分界線、邊界、建立階層、歧視的迷思中震醒過來。這個寓言將所有的障礙去除，「沒有什麼比內心根本的改變(歸正) 更好了」。

離開99隻去尋找另外那走失的一隻，說明我們和普世大眾的關係，我們自身的救贖和解放與那走失、貧困、被邊緣化的人的救贖和解放有著深切的關係，當我們聽到這個寓言，牧羊人:天主，優先去尋找那走失的羊，我們知道了打破藩籬的奧跡:那些貧困、被邊緣化、被遺忘而失去希望的人，是天主所心愛的。耶穌明白的告訴我們「那些小羊走失，並不是天父的旨意」。

當我們更深入了解這個羊迷失的寓言故事，我們看清生命深層的意義以也更了解我們生活的模式。

這個寓言邀請我們來參與神對人類的計劃:也就是天主的國。何時內心有了根本的改變(歸正)，天主的國就在那裡:心不容易改變，用心慢慢學習，如何去愛、去愛誰，這將最強而有力的能量釋放到宇宙中，也就是將天主的愛釋放在這世上。

著者: 使徒修女Helene Hayes


The Parable of the Good Shepherd

  To leave the 99 in favor of the “one” is to understand our universal kinship with all human beings. It is to understand that our salvation and liberation are intertwined in a profound way with the salvation and liberation of the “stray ones,” the poor, the ostracized, those left in the bleak margins of society. When we hear in this parable the preferential delight that the Shepherd-God takes in this one lost sheep, we come to know the mysterious, boundary-shattering truth that the poor, the marginalized, those left behind without hope are the Beloved of God. Jesus tells us this quite plainly, “It is not the will of your Abba-God that one of these little ones should be lost.”

When we listen deeply to this parable of the lost sheep we are swept up into a decision about the depths of life’s meaning and our own patterns of living. We, as human beings, are not “hard-wired” to grasp who God is. God is utterly unknowable and lies well beyond any available categories in our minds to explain. All major religions agree on this point.

And yet, in the Christian faith, God can be known in human terms because God came into this world as a human – “and thus can be known about in the familiar language of earthly experience. Jesus did not live a parallel existence alongside of the world, instead he plunged into our world to transform it by His mission.”

Thus, in Jesus, we can know that the unutterably mysterious God, “whose explosive power hurls galaxies into space is the same God whose tender love enfolds the disinherited, the dispossessed, the ‘throw-aways’ of the earth.” No parable expresses this radical, even disconcerting, truth more clearly and unequivocally than the parable of the Good Shepherd.

When we speak about spirituality or a spiritual path, we are talking about the moment when we gain an insight into the nature of reality and then begin to love that reality. Over a lifetime, it is, as Annie Dillard tells us, “the heart’s hard turning, the heart’s slow learning” how to love and who to love.

While we are not “wired” to grasp who God is, what we are hard-wired for is openness to mystery. We are created with a gnawing “incompleteness, an unfinishedness, an emptiness” at the core of the self. We are radically open to mystery and are driven there by our thirst for something more, something beyond our “ego encapsulated” selves. St. Augustine says, “we seek one Mystery, God, with another mystery, ourselves.”

The parables of Jesus give us an opening on the mystery of God by shattering our hardened perceptions of reality and flipping them upside down. The parables give elbowroom to God whose compassion is always a surprise, always an imaginative shock.

The parable of the Good Shepherd cuts quite quickly to the ‘spiritual marrow.’ It is only five sentences long. The theme of this parable of the lost sheep, like the lost coin and the lost treasure, is about “homecoming,” about overcoming our lostness. It is about finding and being found, about finding God and being found by God. It is the spiritually stunning news that God, through Jesus has caused our “homecoming.” This parable is about our reconciliation with holy mystery, with the sacred.

When we begin to accept this “homecoming” there are two dimensions to our liberation, to our “heart’s hard turning” personal conversion and social transformation. A turning toward God as a rudder in life and a turning towards others in compassionate service. A deep relationship with God always extroverts us for service to others.

Jesus draws us into “the heart’s slow learning” who to love and how to love when he asks: “What do you think? Suppose a man has a hundred sheep. If one of them strays, does he not leave the other ninety-nine on the hillside and go in search of the one that strayed?” Here he reverses our expectations. Using the ‘tawdry materialism’ of our day we might draw the opposite conclusion. Why leave the 99? This parable shocks us by cutting through “our perennial inclination to draw lines, invoke boundaries, establish hierarchies, maintain discrimination.” The gospel breaks down all barriers. “Conversion of hearts is the great equalizer.”

To leave the 99 in favor of the “one” is to understand our universal kinship with all human beings. It is to understand that our salvation and liberation are intertwined in a profound way with the salvation and liberation of the “stray ones,” the poor, the ostracized, those left in the bleak margins of society. When we hear in this parable the preferential delight that the Shepherd-God takes in this one lost sheep, we come to know the mysterious, boundary-shattering truth that the poor, the marginalized, those left behind without hope are the Beloved of God. Jesus tells us this quite plainly, “It is not the will of your Abba-God that one of these little ones should be lost.”

When we listen deeply to this parable of the lost sheep we are swept up into a decision about the depths of life’s meaning and our own patterns of living.

This parable is an invitation to participate in God’s project for humanity which we call the reign of God. The reign of God is that space in our hearts and on the earth where conversion has taken place – where the “heart’s hard turning, the heart’s slow learning” how to love and who to love has unleashed the most potent energy in the universe – God’s love loose upon the earth.

— Sr. Helene Hayes, apostolic sister​​