
Apr 14
The Joy of the Gospel from Pope Francis

The most perfect lost sheep in the Gospel is Judas”. Indeed, he is “a man who always, always had something of a bitterness in his heart, something of criticizing the others, always at a distance: a man who did not know the “gracious sweetness of living with others”. Therefore, because this “sheep” “was not satisfied”, he “escaped”.
Judas, “escaped because he was a thief. Others “are lustful”, and similarly “escape because there is that darkness in their heart which distances them from the flock”. We are confronted with “that double life” which exists “in many Christians”, and even in “priests” and “bishops”, with pain. Even “Judas was a bishop. He was one of the first bishops...”.
Therefore, Judas too is a “lost sheep”, “Poor man! Even we are able to understand the lost sheep. Indeed, “we too always have a little something, little or not so little, of the lost sheep. (Santa Marta, 6 December 2016)