When the owner of the sheep eventually finds the lost sheep, he puts it on his shoulders and brings it home: And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home…(Lk 15: 5-6)

The gesture of the Shepherd’s bringing the sheep back on his shoulders, once he has found it, is filled with tenderness. Clearly, the intention here is to stress the intimacy and intensity of love. One gets the impression that the owner of the sheep now loves the lost one more intensely than before; undoubtedly, if it had not strayed and had been looked for and found, it would never have been the object of the loving tenderness it is now, being brought home on the shoulders of its owner. There is a parallel to this in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, when the father lovingly embraces his son on his return home (Lk 15:20).

Finally, when the Shepherd of the sheep comes home, having recovered the object of his love, a festival of rejoicing is held. That is not surprising because – as the father of the prodigal son also said – this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.[1] Here the same thing happens, once the bride has been found and regained: And when he comes home, he calls together his family and his neighbors, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.”[2] The nuptial feast and the banquets are the prologue to the consummation of love. The Banquet of the Kingdom of Heaven will be nothing other than the definitive consummation of love:

I come, I come to my garden, my sister, my bride,//I gather my myrrh with my spice,//I eat my honeycomb with my honey,//I drink my wine and my milk.//Come, my friends , and drink,// and be inebriated, my dearly beloved![3]

The festival of joy is celebrated because the lovers’ comings and goings have reached their end. All the searching and all the absences are over; at the same time, all the sighing have given way to the enduring mutual presence of the lovers. The bride’s desire – which the Bridegroom shares – is at long last achieved: And Jesus knew that they had a mind to ask him. And he said to them: “Of this do you inquire among yourselves, because I said: ‘A little while, and you shall not see me; and again a little while, and you shall see me?’ Amen, amen, I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice: and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labour, has sorrow, because her hour is come; but when she has brought forth the child, she remembers no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. So also you now indeed have sorrow: but I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice. And your joy no man shall take from you.[4]

The scriptural passages always end up saying the same thing: the festival of the joy of love is not celebrated until home is reached. It is at home, which is the destination and place of rest, and not on the road, a place of fatigue and pilgrimage, that the celebration comes to pass. Life is a bad night spent in a bad inn, Saint Teresa of Ávila used to say. For the Parable of the Lost Sheep, too, joy is incomplete until they arrive back home... And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them…[5] ; that is, at the end of the road, and only when that moment arrives. Until then the bride is still anxiously seeking the Bridegroom. Searches and anguishes will continue too, while one goes on walking, in tireless pilgrimage, until the very end of the way is reached.

As you walk towards hills above,

Allow me to walk with you, Pilgrim, my friend,

And see if he whom I love

Gives us his wine to drink of,

In reaching together our long journey’s end.

(Commentaries to the Song of Songs, First Volume, pages 86-89)

[1] Lk 15:32.

[2] Lk 15:6.

[3] Song 5:1.

[4] Jn 16: 19-22.

[5] Lk 15:16.