The Good Shepherd does not count efficiency. He counts hearts. In the parable we just heard at the gospel proclamation, Jesus reveals a God who is not content with percentages. Ninety-nine is not enough. One missing sheep is one too many. And so He leaves the safe, the counted, the settled—to seek the one who is wandering, wounded, or simply weary. He does not scold. He searches. And when He finds the sheep, He does not drag it back. He lifts it onto His shoulders, as if the burden were joy. This is the logic of the Sacred Heart—a heart that bleeds not only for humanity as a whole, but for each soul. A heart that is pierced, not to display suffering, but to pour out love. The image of the Sacred Heart is not sentimental. It is radical. It tells of a God who leaves behind the respectable to find the lost, not with shame but with song. “Rejoice with me,” He says—not when we get everything right, but when we let ourselves be found. There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents—because heaven is not a reward for the perfect, but the home of the beloved • AE

Corazón encendido, llama pura,
de espinas coronado y fiel herido,
en Ti reposa el mundo estremecido
y el cielo canta en áurea hermosura.

Los ángeles te velan con ternura,
y el aire se arrodilla agradecido.
Tu sangre es luz, tu herida es el latido
que salva al alma, y sana su amargura.

¡Oh llama eterna, amor que no se apaga!
¡Oh Cruz clavada en pecho tan divino!
¡Oh Rey que en vez de trono el pecho embriaga!

Que todo el corazón sea tu camino,
y aun el perdido, al verte, se propaga
de gozo, de perdón, de cielo y vino.

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