Thursday, November 5, 2009The Luminous Mysteries
There are two wonderful readings presented at Mass tomorrow. In the first from Romans, we are reminded that whether alive or dead, whether on earth or in heaven, Jesus claims possession of us. And we must recognize that all around us are the brothers and sisters of the Lord. We are all His precious sheep whom He claims as His dearly beloved.
Some of these are 'the other sheep' whom we look down on. We forget that sometimes, we are 'the other sheep'. We must never despise those who have strayed from the faith, or even on those who ridicule the Church. God may change their hearts, and they may far surpass us in holiness and service. Someday we will stand beside them at the final judgment.
Perhaps we have not sinned as grievously, but almost certainly we have strayed through sin, through our indifference, through our pride.
We should humbly accept the Lord's ownership of our lives, and let Him nourish us, forgive our foolish ways, and let His mercy embrace us closely to His Heart.
The Gospel presents my favorite image of the Lord in the Gospels: the Good Shepherd. How consoling to realize that our God cares for us personally as individuals and not only as part of a community of believers. And even more consoling is the realization that our shepherd does not abandon and reject us when we go astray but goes out of his way to bring us back, “What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it?”
How sad that so many Christians imagine God and Jesus so differently. We imagine the Lord primarily as king, ruler or judge meticulously keeping a heavenly scorecard of our good and bad actions. Further we imagine the Lord as abandoning and rejecting and perhaps even punishing us when we go astray. We think that we must earn God’s love by fulfilling religious obligations.
But God’s love for us is unconditional and constant. Like the love of the good shepherd in this parable God’s love seeks us out when we stray desiring only that we return home so there may be even more rejoicing, “Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.”
Some of these are 'the other sheep' whom we look down on. We forget that sometimes, we are 'the other sheep'. We must never despise those who have strayed from the faith, or even on those who ridicule the Church. God may change their hearts, and they may far surpass us in holiness and service. Someday we will stand beside them at the final judgment.
Perhaps we have not sinned as grievously, but almost certainly we have strayed through sin, through our indifference, through our pride.
We should humbly accept the Lord's ownership of our lives, and let Him nourish us, forgive our foolish ways, and let His mercy embrace us closely to His Heart.
The Gospel presents my favorite image of the Lord in the Gospels: the Good Shepherd. How consoling to realize that our God cares for us personally as individuals and not only as part of a community of believers. And even more consoling is the realization that our shepherd does not abandon and reject us when we go astray but goes out of his way to bring us back, “What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it?”
How sad that so many Christians imagine God and Jesus so differently. We imagine the Lord primarily as king, ruler or judge meticulously keeping a heavenly scorecard of our good and bad actions. Further we imagine the Lord as abandoning and rejecting and perhaps even punishing us when we go astray. We think that we must earn God’s love by fulfilling religious obligations.
But God’s love for us is unconditional and constant. Like the love of the good shepherd in this parable God’s love seeks us out when we stray desiring only that we return home so there may be even more rejoicing, “Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.”
No comments:
Post a Comment