Word to the Wise
Tuesday, August 13, 2024 - Tuesday in the 19th Week in Ordinary Time
[Ezek 2:8-3:4 and Matt 18:1-5, 10, 12-14]"What is your opinion? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray? And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray. In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost.” [Matthew]
The shepherd who cares for every single sheep is a comforting and challenging figure to me on two different levels. The first level is that the shepherd will come looking for me if I get lost. That is comforting. The second is a challenge to me as a priest (but also to any of us who care) to reach out and look for that one we know who is lost. In both of these we are assured that God will be anxious with us that neither we nor the other will be lost. We cannot count ourselves out nor can we count anyone else out.
There are a lot of "what if's" that some folks like to pose, especially in regard to the challenge. One does not have to become a pest in someone else's life, but one should at least make an attempt to warn or ask someone acting destructively about the consequences of their behavior. At least we can show that we care. It may be awkward, but it's an act of love. On the level of personal woe, God assures us that unless we choose to hide (as if that is possible from God) we are not going to be dragged kicking and screaming into heaven. The choice is really ours. AMEN