The scribes and Pharisees were obsessed with their own spiritual and ritual purity, and refused to socialise with those who did not observe the Jewish Law. In contrast, Jesus reaches out to those who are lost - to bring them back to a world of truth and love. What the two protagonists do in the parable seem extravagant and foolhardy. Why would a shepherd abandon his ninety-nine sheep at the mercy of wild beasts and thieves to scour the rocky terrain for a single lost one? Why would a woman labour hours to find a lost coin of little value? They illustrate that God's measure of love is a love without measure. He knows us even before we are born.

Pope Francis lamented that we live in a throwaway culture in which everything is seen as disposable and replaceable. This has been extended to human life as the elderly are abandoned and the infirmed euthanised because they are no longer useful to society. As Christians, we must be unwaveringly pro-life. Instead of remaining in our comfort zones, we pray for the grace to go forth and foster a culture of encounter by seeking out the lost, the lonely and the unloved, and the most vulnerable in society, and integrate them back to their families and communities through our corporal works of mercy.