Thursday in the Thirty-First Week of Ordinary Time

It drives me crazy when I lose something.  This happens a lot as I get older,  and I feel so restless until I find it!   Like the woman and her lost coin.  She postponed preparation of the next meal.  She didn’t go to the well to draw water and chat with her neighbors.  She didn’t go to the stream to wash her laundry. Her one consuming focus was on finding that lost coin. 

In these parables Jesus is describing himself, his passionate desire to find the one who is lost.  He would endure his entire passion and death to save even one person. 

But we have all gone astray,  all hundred sheep,  all ten coins.  If all are not saved it will not be from lack of love in the Shepherd,  but from lack of love in those who will to be lost. 

In this Eucharist we rejoice in Christ’s saving love for us,  and we pray with the whole Church for those who are still lost.