3rd Sunday after Pentecost 17.6.12 God searches for us
We have just had the feast of the Sacred Heart and the Gospel today reinforces the same theme of the great mercy of God, and His intense desire to save us.
He is not content to leave people for lost while there is still a chance of finding them.
We feel sympathy for other people in proportion to how well we know them or love them.
Most people in the world we do not know; but God knows them all! And if something bad happens to anyone anywhere He feels the pain of that person. (Even if He is punishing them.)
Add to this the much greater grief He would feel when a person commits sin, or stays defiant against the offer of grace and mercy. (We should feel worse about that too but we tend to focus only on the physical suffering of people.)
If someone we loved was lost we would go looking for that person. Since God loves every person He therefore does the same thing; only His version of ‘looking’ is much more detailed than ours. He does not rest with restoring bodies; He wants the soul as well.
We can easily visualize the Good Shepherd going in search of sheep. But how in practice does Our Lord ‘go out’ looking for sinners?
He speaks through the Church; through the Bible; through other people; through circumstances; in all sorts of ways. Also He can plant thoughts in our heads and sometimes strong emotions in our hearts. We have to discern all these things because it may not be God talking but sometimes at least it certainly is the Shepherd seeking us out.
Human ‘sheep’ are much harder to catch than actual sheep. The different ways in which a person can shake off one of these messages, or even years of them, are many.
How many times would a person express something of a sentiment that ‘I must get around to that sometime, go to Confession, or go back to church, or be reconciled with my brother etc...’
It is easy to snap out of one of these resolutions and come back to ‘reality’ so called. The true reality is found in the spiritual world. When God speaks to us we have reality at its fullest and we should respond.
People say sometimes, If God would show Himself to me and tell me what to do then I would do it. They demand a miracle or something spectacular when they should be reading the signs that God puts before them every day.
If I come across a poor man at my gate I don't need a revelation from God to know that I should do something to help him.
If my life is in disorder because I am breaking all the commandments, I don't need a special announcement that I should repent. The message is there, in the circumstances themselves.
It is difficult to reach lost sheep but it does happen, and many have come to the Good Shepherd when He has called.
We can help the process by responding ourselves to His call in our own lives, getting rid of what sin still lurks there.
Further we can help by adopting the Heart of the Shepherd that feels such love for every stray person.
We cannot directly love every person but we can at least desire their salvation and many of our prayers are geared towards that, eg the Fatima prayer... lead all souls to heaven.
Our prayers for fellow travellers in this earthly life will help them to find the right path, also ensuring that we do not ourselves lose it.
The Sacred Heart is not just a statue. It is a Heart that moves with its own intensity. It goes out to sinners and speaks to them in their hearts as well as minds. Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavily burdened and I will give you rest.
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