A Journal for The Contemporary Church

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Lost Sheep and Lost Souls

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When Pharisees complained that Jesus received sinners and ate with them, he told them this parable. “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbours, saying to them, rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost” (Luke 15:3-6). The lesson Jesus draws from the parable is that “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-ninerighteous persons who need no repentance” (v.7). He interprets the lost sheep as a sinner. We ask is it possible for a righteous person to be a lost sheep in the Catholic wilderness, and answer that it is not only possible but also actually happens in the case of intersex and LGBT people.

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