Victim of a Book

Seeing the role of the angels in the parable of the lost sheep

12/10/2024

Mt 18:12-14 Jesus said to his disciples: "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."

I had a professor at the University of Dallas whom I admired very much (and still do) named Dr. Janet Smith. She taught philosophy and classical languages like Greek and Latin. She once made an off-handed comment that I have never forgotten. She said: “We are all the victim of the last book we read.”

What she meant by that was that we feel very moved, or inspired, or convicted, or enthralled, or entertained, etc. by the most recent book we just finished, and we feel all our friends should read it, too. Have you ever fallen victim to the last book you read? Don’t worry, I have too.

Let me share a little of a book I am currently reading, and feeling like its willing victim. I have fallen under the spell of Jean Danielou’s classic “The Angels and Their Mission: According to the Fathers of the Church.” Now, don’t let that anodyne title deceive you; it may sound tame and trite.

But this little 114-page book packs a powerful punch. And I am convinced everyone should run out and buy their own copy. In other words, everyone who has ever read a book feels like Oprah Winfrey and wants to start their own book club. Oprah is also the victim of the last book she reads.

But Jean Danielou helped me penetrate the gospel we just head and reach new depths of understanding. He reads and studies Scripture through the eyes of the early Church Fathers, collectively called “the Patristics.” Danielou is a Patristic scholar.

And therefore intimately familiar with the works of Origen, Tertullian, St. John Chrysostom, St. Irenaeus, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Gregory the Great, and the greatest of them all, St. Augustine. That is, Daniel would say: if you want to be a victim of any book, go back and read the Church Fathers. That is the book club you want to belong to, not Oprah’s.

When you and I hear Jesus’ parable in Mt 18 about the 100 sheep, 99 good and 1 that goes astray, we typically think the “sheep" symbolize “people.” That is, Jesus is talking about 99 righteous people (the saints) as opposed to the one lost soul (the sinner). But that is not how the early Church Fathers interpreted that parable.

Danielou explains: “ There is a whole tradition, with Irenaeus as its first witness, but actually going back much further, which sees this [lost] sheep as human nature and the flock which the Good Shepherd leaves behind to set out in search for the sheep as the worlds of the angels” (p. 49). Did you catch that? The 99 sheep do not represent human beings but the choirs of angels. And all humanity is the one lost, straying sheep.

Danielou continues to expound this Patristic perspective: “ Christ, returning with the lost sheep on His shoulders, is the Word of God who has assumed human nature and leads it back into heaven at the Ascension.” And then Danielou adds: “This is the joy of the angels – that is, for the Fathers, of the ninety-nine sheep which the Shepherd left behind to set out in search of the stray sheep, and who now greet Him with joy as he returns with it” (p. 49).

In other words, the Church Fathers saw the parable of the lost sheep not only in light of the angels, but also as shedding light on the mystery of the Ascension, the 2nd Glorious Mystery of the rosary. The Ascension, therefore, is not just Jesus returning home after a long day at work saving souls; he is the Good Shepherd who has found the lost sheep – humanity – and brought it home to heaven on his shoulders.

Now, that is all good and fine for speculative, theoretical theology – like trying to answer the question, “how many angels can dance on the head of a needle?” – but does this Patristic perspective have any practical value? I thought you’d never ask. I don’t know about you but when I hear the parable of the lost sheep, do you know which category I automatically place myself?

Naturally, I am one of the 99 righteous sheep. After all, I go to daily Mass, I pray my rosary, I give to the poor, I wear this very holy-looking Roman collar. You cannot get much holier than that. When I counsel couples struggling in their marriages, when I talk to teens who are fighting their parents and their peers, when I read and write decisions for annulment cases, do you know what I hear?

Everyone believes they are innocent and the victim of injustice, and someone else is the culprit and at fault. In other words, we all jump into the category of the 99 righteous sheep and look at others as the straying sheep. And debunking that delusion is precisely the practical value of the Patristic interpretation of this passage. The 99 righteous are the angels, not human beings, and you and I are collectively the culprit, the lost sheep, in need of salvation.

There is a poignant scene at the beginning of the movie “Gladiator” when the Roman legion faces-off against a Germanic, barbaric army. Right before the battle the Roman General Maximus, played by Russell Crowe, stands beside his lieutenant, Quintus, surveying the scene. Quintus states proudly: “People should know when they are conquered.”

And Maximus replies wisely: “Would you, Quintus? Would I?” Then the Roman legions mow down the barbarians in a gory battle. The great irony, of course, is that 400 years later those same Germanic barbarians, called the Visigoths, would overrun Rome and sack her. And that is the point of the parable of the lost sheep: humanity has been conquered by Satan, and we do not know it.

Praised be Jesus Christ!