The Mysterious beauty of God's love

 TITLE: THE MYSTERIOUS BEAUTY OF GOD’S LOVE

INTRODUCTION

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 the church. 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 John 18:9 it was affirmed that He didn’t lose any of those given to him. Christ cares for the repentance of the sinner, He says in the gospel of Luke 5:32, He has come not to call the just, but to call the sinners to repentance. The grace of salvation is directed toward those who need to be saved.

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, yet not desirous to return. Christ is earnest in bringing sinners home. In the parable of the lost piece of silver, that which was lost is one piece, of small value compared with the rest. Yet the woman seeks diligently till she finds it.

Through the two short parables, Jesus presents the essential nature of God: benevolent in his love, generous in his mercy, and kind towards the wayward. He does not wish that even one of his children gets lost. St Paul is one of those who experienced the joy of being ‘lost’ and ‘found’. God’s feast is about rejoicing over the repentant sinners. Today the lord beckons us to be found by him through the sacrament of reconciliation.

CONCLUSION

Occasionally we 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. Another extreme is when we are 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.