3rd Sunday after Pentecost 21 June 2009 Sermon

3rd Sunday after Pentecost 21.6.09 Lost sheep

This Sunday, coming straight after the Feast of the Sacred Heart, does reinforce the message of that feast – that God has a very strong desire to save sinners. As His Heart is open to receive the returning sinner, so He also goes out looking for sinners. He is the Good Shepherd who knows each sheep by name and calls him home.

It occurs to me sometimes what a marvellous thing it is that God, in His infinite knowledge, knows exactly what each person is doing, thinking, suffering, hoping for – at every moment.

We find it hard to keep track of just a few people, but here is the Good Shepherd keeping track of every detail.

We sometimes complain about Big Brother; about the information that is stored up on each one of us through financial records, and all the forms we have to fill in.

With God, we don’t need to worry. He knows all that without any forms. He knows more about us than we know ourselves.

And He has nothing but goodwill towards us. We may be suspicious how others will use the information they have, but Almighty God desires only our happiness, and will work towards that.

God actually speaks to each person in the world, though not usually in an audible voice.

He ‘speaks’ insofar as He makes Himself known through the signs of His creative activity; through the circumstances of each person’s life; through His law written on the heart of each person, even those who do not officially know Him.

So, for example, if someone finds his life falling apart through the economic crisis, he is being invited to reflect on the deeper issues in his life, such as ‘what is it all for?’ Why am I here on this earth? There must be a reason. Thus the person is led towards God.

It does not always work so smoothly, because we live in an age when meaning is often denied. It is all just random, many say. They close out the voice of God. Nevertheless He still speaks to them, and sometimes one or other is converted. The lost sheep comes home.

One way He speaks to the lost is through us, who are the ‘found’ (apparently), though we feel lost enough ourselves a lot of the time. Still, if we are in the flock, whatever sins we commit, and whatever weaknesses we have, we are at least still in the right place.

He seeks the sheep through us, the ones He already has. We are the 99, though we may have been stray sheep ourselves at some time.

So we have to go out and look for the others. We don’t feel qualified. It does not mean we have to go out like missionaries, tramping the streets, though some will do that. It may just mean we need to pray, to speak a word of encouragement or correction, to give good example, to be part of the Church’s apostolate.

Once included in the flock we are automatically commissioned to go out and look for others. No standing still.
We need to be more ‘worried’ about what happens to people. We tend to say easy come, easy go. We quote statistics or percentages, but each soul is infinitely valuable.
When one is found there is great joy in heaven. In heaven they know the value of each soul. Each soul has been bought at the price of the Precious Blood, so it must be worth something.

We are not expected to know everyone or everything about each person, but we can at least recognize that where there is a human being there is a soul, of infinite value. And thus we are motivated to do what we can for that soul.

We would normally say 99 out of 100 is not bad. But this parable is telling us, No, you cannot be happy if even one of your number is out in the cold. This makes sense if we think of the Church in the same light as a family. Suppose a family of say two parents and six children had to make a sudden exit because flood waters were coming. You would not be happy if one of the children could not be found. Nobody would say: well, I have five out of six children in the car. Five out of six is not bad. Of course, you would be frantically looking for the lost child.

Let us continue our devotion to the Sacred Heart by being in sympathy with His search for the one(s) who is (are) missing.