Thursday, Thirty First Week in Ordinary Time

When Jesus wanted to communicate who God is like, he often pointed to some human experience. He recognized that sometimes the way humans behave can give us an insight into God. There is something to be learned about God, Jesus suggests, by looking at how ordinary people live their lives. Even those who would not see themselves as especially religious can reveal God to us. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus invites his critics, who thought of themselves as religious, to look at how a shepherd and a woman might behave when they lose something precious. The shepherd who loses one of a hundred sheep will go looking for that one sheep until he finds it. He will passionately search for it, and, then when he has found it, he will gather his friends and neighbours in his home to share his joy. When one went missing, he didn’t say, ‘Well, I have another ninety nine, so let him go’. Similarly, a woman who loses one of her precious coins will sweep every nook and cranny in her house until she finds it, and so great is her joy upon finding it that she invites her neighbours to share her joy. Jesus is saying, ‘God is like this shepherd and this woman’. God is always searching for the lost, those who have not come to know his tremendous love for them. He wants everyone to know that they are God’s beloved sons and daughters. That is why he sent Jesus into the world, to show to the world God’s passionate, searching, love for all. Each one of us is invited to allow ourselves to be found by this loving God whom Jesus reveals and continues to make present to us today.