LOST BECAUSE LOVED

3 November 2005
Thursday of the 31st Week in Ordinary Time

LOST BECAUSE LOVED
Lk 15:1-10

We lose only people we love. People we do not love, we do not notice when they are present or absent. Worse, to people we do not love, we sometimes say, “Get lost!”

It is love that gives value to people we are related to in one way or another. Without love, no one and nothing have value. We do not lose people who or things that we consider not valuable. This is the difference between Jesus and His critics today.

The scribes and the Pharisees complain that Jesus welcomes sinners and eats with them because the scribes and the Pharisees have no love for lawbreakers. The scribes and the Pharisees, instead, love the law. Jesus, however, loves even the lawbreakers even as He loves the law too.

Jesus loses us because He loves us. When we sin, Jesus loses us because He loves us. That is why He comes looking for us. When He finds us, He carries us on His shoulders as a shepherd carries his once-lost-but-now-found sheep.

Who are the people you lost? You lost them because you love them. Have you no love for them, you will not even notice that you lost them.

Are there people in your life now to whom you say, “Get lost!” Why?

Love indeed is the answer to so many questions because it is love that gives value to all.

Do not let Jesus lose you. He loves you more than you know. Do not let Jesus lose the others too. He loves them as much as He loves you, you know. For the love of Jesus, let us seek the lost. Let us be another “Jesus” to all.