Thursday of Week 31 in Ordinary Time (Year II)
Saint Martin de Porres, Religious
Philippians 3:3-8 | Psalm 104(105):2-7 | Luke 15:1-10
In the same way, I tell you, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine virtuous men who have no need of repentance. (Luke 15:7)
I have a peculiar programming habit.
Whenever I write code that passes all the tests that I can devise, and seems to work well under end-user “torture”, I just shrug, stretch, and move on to the next problem.
Then my business partner calls me with a “Hey! XYZ just broke in ABC way!”
Instantly, I’m juiced up on adrenaline. I put aside whatever I’m working on at the time, and dive deep into my code in a frenzy of testing, probing and more testing. When I find the thrice-damned bug, fix it, and release the amended code, there’s a rush of ecstasy, and I immediately “confess” the cause of the problem to my partner – often an oversight on my part.
(That just happened in the middle of writing this entry, so you know it’s true.)
I’m not the Good Shepherd, but I hope you see the parallel with today’s Gospel.
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My relationship with the Sacrament of Reconciliation was upended when I stumbled across a pithy description of Christianity by a non-Christian teacher:
The difference between Christianity and every other faith in the world is that all other religions are about man trying to reach up to God. Christianity is about God reaching down to man. (emphasis mine)
How many of us are afraid to avail ourselves of this Sacrament because we just can’t seem to break the cycle of our particular sins that keep cropping up? Because we feel we don’t deserve to be reconciled with God, that we’re failures, that we don’t “measure up”?
How many of us have forgotten that God has already “reached down” to us in the form of Jesus Christ, has already offered us redemption, has already signaled His readiness to forgive even our basest sins?
How many of us have forgotten that God, like the father of the Prodigal Son, just wants us to come home?
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The Gospel speaks of the shepherd’s joy at finding the lost sheep, but how do you think the sheep felt? Cold and hungry, stumbling around in the darkness, cowering in fear at the menacing howls of hunting wolf-packs, what would its reaction be when the shepherd finds it and tenderly carries it home?
I think it’s quite obvious really…