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After weeks of Jesus telling us to focus all our efforts on
heaven and laying out all the sacrifices and renunciations we must make for the
sake of the kingdom, it could be understandable if someone was feeling a little
disheartened. If it weren’t for the rest
of what we know of the Gospel, these readings would make it seem that God wants
us to do all the work while He sits back and watches us fight for first place
in heaven. But the reality is much
different from these false appearances, and today’s Gospel (and the other readings)
show us just how much God himself is desiring our salvation. It seems that
based off these Gospels that God wants us to be saved much more than we do, and
all Jesus was doing was asking for our desire to be saved to match God’s desire
for our reconciliation.
God wants to find us.
This is the simple message of today’s reading, and really is the story
of the Bible. Go back to the beginning –
the first thing God says in the Bible is: “where are you?” No this isn’t a game of hide-and-seek with
God, as if he didn’t know the answer to the question and really couldn’t see
Adam & Eve – the one who knows our thoughts as easily as we hear the noise at
the ND football stadium. God says this
for Adam’s sake.
The prodigal son has forgotten who he is. “let me be a servant.”
The father wishes to restore that dignity: ring, sandals,
robe.
Easy to see ourselves in this story. We all have the chance to be the characters in that story, or
to not be. The choice is yours.
We all sin. We can repent or not.
We all have someone to forgive and reconcile with. We can do so or choose to avoid others.
We all have the choice between resentment or rejoicing,
bitterness or mercy.
LOST SHEEP - Let God find you.
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