“No sheep can be lost”. According to Pope Francis, this is what Jesus wants to teach us in the Parable of the Good Shepherd. “The Lord cannot resign Himself to the idea of someone being lost, even if that someone is only one person”, Pope Francis explained. “God always seeks out His children who are lost, and then celebrates and rejoices with everyone once He finds them. It is an irresistible desire: not even the ninety-nine sheep can stop the shepherd and prevent him from leaving the fold”. Jesus could have “calculated, taken stock – he said off the cuff -, but no! He goes and seeks out that one, because everyone is really important to Him, and that one is the most in need, the most excluded, and He goes there to find it”. The Pope then considered the introductory question to the parable: “What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it?”. “It is a paradox – he explained – which makes us question the actions of the shepherd: is it wise to leave behind the ninety-nine for only one sheep? To leave them not in the safety of the fold, but in the desert?”. In the Biblical tradition, Pope Francis explained, “the desert is a place of death where it is difficult to find food and water; it is a place fraught with dangers and at the mercy of wild beasts and thieves. What can ninety-nine defenceless sheep do there?”. The “paradox” in this parable goes on “as the shepherd, after finding the sheep, sets it on his shoulders, goes home, calls his friends and neighbours, and says to them: ‘rejoice with me!’”. “It may seem that the shepherd does not go back to the desert to bring back the whole flock! Caring only for that sheep, he seems to forget the other ninety-nine!”, said the Pope. “But it is not like that! Jesus only wants to teach us that no sheep can be lost”.