The Gospel readings were telling us about what we should do to attain salvation: strive to enter through the narrow door; be humble at all times; make God as the first priority in life; carry your cross and renounce all your possessions. These are all on the part of man. But given our limitations and weakness, can we do all these successfully? So,Jesus gives us the other and the most important part, namely, the part of God. Salvation is mainly the work of God, and our part is just to cooperate with His grace. To illustrate this, Jesus tells the three “Lost and Found” parables. The shepherd noticed one sheep was missing. So he left the ninety-nine and looked for the lost sheep. When he found it, he put it on his shoulder and announces with great joy the good news. A woman had to clean up her entire house in search for one lost coin. When she found it, she invited her neighbors to celebrate with her. A son left the house and was lost in the midst of worldly pleasure and excess. But his father did not give up on him. Every day, he searched the horizon, looking for signs of the coming of his son. And when from afar he saw him coming home, he ran to meet him and kissed him. In a courtroom, the judge was upset to see the same young man in front of him. “You again?” exclaimed the judge. “The last time you were here, I specifically told you that I did not want to see you here again!” The young man replied, “Yes, your Honor! That is precisely what I told these cops, but they just would not believe me.” When someone offends us, we would invariably say, “Get out of my sight! I don’t want to see you again. Get lost!” How different God is from us. He does not want anyone of us to be lost. So He looks for us patiently and unceasingly until He finds us. This is the main theme of the three “Lost and Found” parables. Unfortunately, we keep running away from Him, we keep hiding from His sight.
Posted on: Sat, 14 Sep 2013 03:48:52 +0000
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