Luke 15:7
Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
Malcolm Muggeridge once noted that to say there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than there is over the ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance is “an anti-statistical remark.” Being finite, we tend to think in generalities when the numbers get too big. Being infinite, God has all eternity to lavish his attention on the most obscure peasant who is wavering between a godly or sinful choice, somewhere on the edge of the Black Forest on March 4, 1382. That moment, like all other moments, is present to God in his Eternal Now. And because he can lavish that sort of attention on each and every human person he has ever made, he can make anti-statistical remarks and see each of us in our concrete personhood and not merely as ingredients in a statistical soup. So when you go to confession remember, you have the complete and rapt attention of the God of the universe. When you repent, all heaven is filled with joy and thanks God for you.
