There once was a man who had wandered away from God for many years; he lost his family, he lost his job, and lost the will to live. He decided that “desperate times called for desperate measures” and so he went into a large, beautiful cathedral.
He hoped that under the spacious dome, standing in the light of the stained-glass windows, and lingering in the presence of the glittering mosaics, he might once again experience the wonder and power of the God he had once known.
A few minutes into his contemplation, someone tapped him on the shoulder. Turning around, he saw an old woman. “Are you hungry?” she asked. “I could give you a few dollars to get something to eat.”
Realizing the risk she had taken and the simple love that prompted it, the man thanked her, but said that he was going to be all right. A few moments later he departed, knowing that he had found God in a way he had never imagined.
The Pharisees and scribes wanted only the stable, the pious, and the virtuous in their church. Jesus disappointed them many times by insisting that his church was for those who needed great mercy, lessons in etiquette, social graces, and perhaps a bath.
The Pharisees thought Jesus' association with sinners was disgraceful, and so he used these two parables (we just heard) to illustrate that heavenly beings rejoice over those who repent on earth. The Pharisees' love of God's law made them forget about God's love.
The big deal about the coin was not that it was lost, but how it was lost. In those days, when a husband took a bride, he gave her a headband with ten silver coins evenly spaced. She wore this headband in public to show that she was married. If she was unfaithful, one of the coins was removed, and the gap showed that she had disgraced her marriage vows.
The big deal about the sheep was not that one was lost, but the reason why it got lost. The little lamb was lost because of foolishness. Sheep, I’m sorry to say, are dumb. For example, during mating season, the males fight for the right to mate by butting heads with each other. When sheep get lost, well they don't even know they’re lost.
A lost sinner is the same. She is hopelessly lost, like a blind person in a darkened room who is looking for a black cat that isn't there. A sinner left to his own devices will never find the Lord.
Sinners loved Jesus because He cared for them. The Pharisees hated Jesus because sinners hung around Him and He hung around sinners. And so, Jesus used the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin to illustrate what He was doing and why He was doing it.
As our Holy Father has reminded us many times, as a church today, we need to be much more concerned with the ones who are lost rather than those who are already in the fold. If Christ loved us enough to seek us out, we need to love others enough to seek them out.
As pastors, lay leaders, catechists, and parishioners, we are challenged to both ask and answer these questions—because one of our principal responsibilities as the baptized is to prepare others to open their hearts to God. It is a sacred trust with many pastoral challenges and countless blessings.
We know that people do not listen to those they do not trust; it is very challenging at times for us to share faith with others.
On this Catechetical Sunday, the Church reminds us that our primary task is to cultivate the soil of the heart, so that others might receive God's gift of faith to believe that Jesus is our Savior and to follow him wherever he goes.
Because you see, most of us get it backwards, we do not bring the lost sheep back to God, it is the lost sheep who do that for us.