“For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord; so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.” Aren’t these words awesome from the first reading for mass today? The entire reading has a lot of wonderful insights, but especially this sentence, because it conveys to us that no matter what we do we belong to the Lord! As long as we are baptized and not in a state of mortal sin that is, but most of us are baptized and if you are reading this reflection, there is a really good chance that you are not in a state of mortal sin either. Mortal sin cuts off God’s grace in our souls. Even in mortal sin, we belong to the Lord though. We are His whether we want to be or not. Our relationship with Jesus might be severed, but we are still under his authority. Even Satan and the demons are under Christ’s command. Good angels and bad angels alike are subjected to him. The last paragraph of the first reading for mass today says:
“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bend before me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.”
What joy it is to kneel at mass though, in adoration of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Ours is not a forced love though. We freely love him, and serve him, hopefully, every day of our lives. His sweet love for us is revealed at every mass and what is not to love about Jesus? The advent season is not too far away and it reminds us of the birth of Christ and what a sweet, holy, helpless little baby he was. And infant King. The wise men couldn’t help but kneel before him. Perhaps they and the shepherds were the first humans on earth to do so. We belong to Jesus but he belongs to us as well. That bond that Christ has with us is even stronger than a mother’s bond with her own child, if you can imagine that. We are Christ’s own possession.
And that brings us right up to today’s gospel story. The Pharisees and scribes are complaining about Jesus again. “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Jesus then explains the parable of the good shepherd who lost one of his sheep. The shepherd left the other ninety nine sheep alone in the desert while he searched for it. When he finally does find it, he doesn’t make the sheep walk back home. He picks him up and puts him on his shoulders like a small child and carries him home. When he gets home he wants his friends and neighbors to rejoice with him because he found his lost sheep. Who couldn’t love this story? The shepherd’s tender loving care, concern for his sheep and diligence in finding him is awesome, but it’s also awesome how he calls together all his friends and neighbors to celebrate.
When we hear the story of the Good Shepherd, many of us can picture Christ’s tender and unconditional love for us, because we belong to the Lord. The challenge today might be to put ourselves in his place though. Rather than see ourselves in his arms, can we picture someone else who has “been bad” in our arms? Can we see ourselves giving this same kind of unconditional love to someone who abandoned us (physically or emotionally), or ended a friendship or close relationship with us? That’s a little harder to picture, reflecting this image of Christ to others, but it really is what we are called to do, to be imitators of Jesus Christ.
It is the same with the parable of the lost coin. Something to think about though, is that we are like the lost sheep or the lost coin. Whether we are close to the Lord or not, we still belong to him. We are his. There is great comfort just in that thought. Also, did you notice that both the shepherd and the woman who found her coin, did the same thing? They both “called together their friends and neighbors and said, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found the lost (sheep or coin)? Jesus uses almost the same identical phrase in both examples he used in these parables today. There’s a reason for that. There is a joy in the restoration of a right relationship with the Lord, but also between two people. Have you ever come to a moment in a disagreement when you suddenly realized the other person was right? Or vice versa? The separation between the two of you is healed and often, it just feels wonderful to be reconciled with one another. If no one holds a grudge over the disagreement, but is simply happy it is resolved, this is an extra grace. The shepherd who lost his sheep and the woman who lost her coin, both let the unhappy aspects of this experience go and chose to celebrate the goodness they were experiencing with those around them. They let the negativity go. It simply was no more. Joy had replaced it.
Something to think about today, is can we picture ourselves in the shoes of the Good Shepherd and offer Christ’s love to those who are not close to us, for whatever reason that may be? Receiving Christ’s love and healing is awesome, but it would be awesome for another person to receive the same kind of love and healing from us as well.
Daily Mass Readings:
Rom 14:7-1 /; Ps 27:1BCDE, 4,13-14 / Luke 15:1-10
