good people getting lost - 24th Sunday C 2013

We are not really sinners in the sense that we are prodigal sons and daughters who squander our inheritance and thus need to return to the father humble and contrite.  We are not really wayward and delinquent like lost sheep which did not follow the flock as they were herded into the pen.  Well at least most of us are not.  In fact many of us are among the ninety nine sheep, most of us if not all are the elder son, and many of us, I am sure are normally righteous, people who are trying to do good and become good everyday of their lives.

But despite this, there are times in the lives of the normally righteous when they themselves seem to be at a lost, when they also feel they have lost something valuable, and times when they themselves even feel lost.  Indi lang nga nadulaan ka pero kon kaisa pamatyag mo ikaw mismo nadula man.

I talked to a parent yesterday.  They were good people.  They were asking for help, begging for help for their children.  Indi na sila kaintiendi, naano na ni sila, naga-ano na ni sila.  Where did we fail, what wrong have we done, ano pa ang wala namon nahatag kag nahimo.  And yet the son turned out to be like this and the daughter turned out to be like that.  They are good people but they are lost.  At least that was how they felt their lives were.

A priest may be celebrating mass every day; a religious may be tending to his or her prayers faithfully, but deep down he or she can feel lost and can even be really lost.

We work day in and day out, serving without counting the cost, sacrificing without expecting to be repaid, and yet there are times when we come to a point when our lives go about aimlessly, meaningless, and adrift.  We are lost.

The lost are not just sinners.  The lost are also well meaning Christians who go to church every Sunday and who take seriously their faith.  Their lives are not always easy.  Their lives are not always meaningful.  Their goals are not always clear.  Many times they too struggle for answers, many times they too are grappling in the dark.  Many of us feel hopelessness too when our dreams are dashed and when our fears overwhelm us.  We too are lost.  We too become lost.

But the parables in our gospel is not about the lost finding their way, rather it is about God seeking the lost, it is about a God who would do anything, even crazy things just to find us.

It would be normal if the shepherd looks for the lost sheep.  But it would be highly irregular if the shepherd leaves the ninety nine.  It would be normal to look for a lost coin, to thoroughly sweep the house in order to find it.  But it is highly irregular when after finding the lost coin you call the neighbours and throw a party that would probably cost 50 times more than the worth of that coin!

Again it is not about what we do, not even what we have done, but what we allow God to do to us.