Jesus said to his disciples: "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."
REFLECTION
"In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost."
Missing your child is a frightening feeling. After the birth of my second child, my two year old went outside to play with our two golden retrievers in the backyard. I had put the baby in his bed and went out to check on the two year. The gate was wide open and he was gone and so were the dogs. I was panicked.
I ran down the street to a neighbor working in her garden and asked if she saw a curly-headed two-year-old boy with two dogs. She said, "No." Then I ran down to the other end of the street which was a busy intersection. No son and no dogs in sight. Now I was hyperventilating. I kept praying to Jesus and Mother Mary to help me find my son.
I went into the house and grabbed the baby put him in the car and decided to drive around the block. As I turned onto the busy street and was halfway down the block I saw one of the dogs in an alley. I quickly turned into the alleyway and there I found my son and the dogs. I was so relieved that he was alright. I thanked Jesus and Mary for their help.
The parable of the Good Shepherd is about one lost sheep out of a hundred. The Shepherd is missing one of the sheep. He leaves the other sheep to go out and find that one. The point is that Jesus will never give up looking for those who are lost.
Just like a father or a mother will search for a lost child, Jesus will never give up on us. When we have sinned, we are lost, but Jesus will hear our cry. He will bring us back.
Advent is a time to prepare for Jesus Christ's second coming. We need to be ready. Let us pray for one another to repent and ask God for forgiveness.
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