Reflection based on the readings of Thursday in the 31st week in Ordinary Time

COURSE: HOMILETICS

NAME: MUOGBO MICHAEL SSPP/THEO/18/0734

Reflection based on the readings of Thursday in the 31^st week in Ordinary Time

What kind of shepherd would leave 99 sheep to go in search of a lost one? It is the good shepherd. God goes extraordinary lengths to bring home the lost. This is “the mysterious beauty of God’s love”. My dear people of God, the love of Christ for us is amazing, it knows no bounds. Searching for the lost sheep of the house of Israel is the principal mission of Christ and of Christianity. Jesus desires that no one should be lost. In the gospel of Luke 19:10 He says “the son of man has come to seek and to save what had been lost”, and in the gospel of John18:9 it was affirmed that he didn’t loss any of those given to him. Christ cares for the repentance of the sinner, He says in the gospel of Luke5:32, He has come not to call the just, but to call the sinners to repentance. Unfortunately, there is a school of thought in today’s version of Christianity that thinks otherwise. They insist on over-bloating the rules and demands of Christianity and they end up scattering the sheep with sanctions rather than gathering them.

The parable of the lost sheep is very applicable to the great work of man’s redemption. The lost sheep represents the sinner as departed from God, and exposed to certain ruin if not brought back to him. Christ is earnest in bringing sinners home. In the parable of the lost piece of silver, that which is lost is one piece, and of small value compared with the rest. Yet the woman seeks diligently till she finds it. With the two short parables, Jesus presents the essential nature of our God: benevolent in his love, generous in his mercy, and kind towards the wayward. St Paul is one of those who experienced the joy of being ‘lost’ and ‘found’ and so is able to say: “indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord”. God always seek to find us when we stray but on our part, we must realize that we are lost and recognize our need for God and begin the journey home to the embraced of divine mercy. When God’s offer of mercy is met by our repentance, all in heaven rejoices.

Occasionally we may develop a feeling of self righteousness which may cause us to look down on others for not reaching the level of spiritual heights that we have reached. Other times we may feel too conscious of our failings and live in extreme self condemnation; we feel we have no right to God’s love. However, the gospel of today tells us what makes God beautiful and different: God does not abandon us when we stray but rather he does everything possible to bring us back to his love and fold. As Christians who know the worth of the Father’s love for us, we should sign up for the attitude of St Paul; we should be ready to count everything as loss just to gain the love and knowledge of Christ.