Welcome to the Gospel of the Lost & Found
And welcome to the Gospel that, in many ways, may be the story of most every family represented here today!
When I think about lost my mind still wonders to a TV classic of my youth...Gilligan's Island. Remember from the song: "the weather started getting rough the tiny ship was tossed, if not for the courage of the fearless crew the Minnow would be LOST!" Since we are speaking of Gilligan's Island, I have one question for the gentlemen: Ginger or Mary Ann?
When I think about found I recall that Liam Neeson movie Taken. In this movie his young daughter is kidnapped while on vacation in Paris and the father moves heaven and earth to find her. It was a good movie but don't watch it with your daughter right before she is taking off to study abroad, in Paris!
We all know something about being lost. Maybe we have been lost while following directions or traveling in an unfamiliar place. We may feel lost at work, even in our careers, or lost at school when we change grades or when faced with a new challenge. We can even get lost in our personal faith life.
But as people of faith we are encouraged to focus not on being lost but found by the remarkably generous love, forgiveness and mercy of the Father!
Today the Church gives us the entire 15th chapter of the Gospel of Luke. It truly is the Gospel of the lost & found; the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. We are hearing these parables because the religious elite of the day are upset with Jesus who eats with sinners. Jesus takes the time to explain that even sin, is not enough to keep us away from God's love, forgiveness and mercy!
We must acknowledge, own if you will, our sinfulness, our "lost" ness. We must decide that we want to be found by turning away from sin and seeking the mercy of the Father. And we must be encouraged that when we do this, and we are thus found, God rejoices with great joy and love!
But without God, without following Jesus Christ, and yes, without His Holy Church, we will remain lost. As the lost sheep, we are vulnerable. As the lost coin, society tells us we have little to no value. As the lost son, we have no real hope and no lasting joy.
If we model the younger son, before he comes to his senses, we are saying to the Father, you are dead to me. We disrespect and we waste His gifts on a life not lived well. But when we indeed come to our senses, we can now be confident that the Father never stopped loving us, seeking us and reacting with great joy at finding us!
The Gospel tells us that there is more joy in Heaven over the return of 1 sinner than over 99 righteous. Even the angels react with joy when a sinner returns.
Can we turn our attention now to the elder son. Are many of us just like him? After all, I come to Mass, I say my prayers, I follow the rules, I try my best; where is my reward. Why do we welcome this "son of yours" a.k.a. his brother,? Is that our family experience? How do we react when one who was so lost, so alienated from the family, truly returns found? Do we have a great joy or do we sulk like the older brother? What about in our faith community. I dare bet that almost every week, someone walks through those front doors of the Church that was lost and now is found. Do they too feel the loving welcome of the Father, or do we resent their return like the older son?
There are three things I would like to propose for our week ahead. Can we prayerfully reread this 15th chapter of Luke and focus on the lost and the joy of being found? Can we also take a look at the 51st psalm? We sung a part of the psalm today for our responsorial psalm and it is the prayer of the universal church every Friday morning. Review this psalm this week when we revisit the Gospel. Finally, the word prodigal actually means wildly extravagant! We can prodigal in bad ways, like the younger son, or we can be prodigal in good ways. In other word, can we commit going forward to be "prodigal", wildly extravagant, in our love, mercy and forgiveness?
When we do this, we not only will be found, but we will see the others in our lives of worthy to be found too. We will be less likely to judge. And I think that is best expressed in this poem:
"I was shocked, confused, bewildered as I entered Heaven's door
Not by the beauty of it all, nor the lights or the décor.
But it was the folks in Heaven who made me sputter and gasp.
The thieves, the liars and sinners, the alcoholics and the trash.
There stood the kid from 7th grade who swiped my lunch twice.
Next to him was my old neighbor who never said anything nice.
Herb, who I always knew was rotting away in hell, was sitting on cloud 9 looking incredibly well.
I nudged Jesus, what's the deal? I would love to hear your take.
How'd all these sinners get up here; God must have made a mistake.
And why is everyone so quiet, so somber, give me a clue?
Hush child, He said, they're all in shock, no one thought they'd be seeing you"
Every Saint has a past; every sinner a future.
That future is no longer being lost, but rejoicing for now I'm found!
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