Thursday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

Today's Scripture

Today’s gospel passage from Luke contains two analogies that Jesus uses to help the scribes and the Pharisees understand why Jesus spends time with sinners. Both comparisons involve losing something and rejoicing in finding it. And in both cases, it may seem a little silly to us that a shepherd would rejoice over one sheep out of 100, or a woman rejoice for finding one coin out of ten. Scholars debate whether Jesus is being sincere or ironic here. But if we hear these words and say, yes, it does seem a little silly to overturn a whole house looking for one little coin or yes, it is quite foolish to leave 99 sheep to search for one lost sheep, then perhaps we can better understand the power of what Jesus is saying.

For, though we value our possessions to some extent, we can never value anything as much as God values us. In this particular case, the scribes and the Pharisees see tax collectors as sinners and hence insignificant in God’s plan. These sinners are sheep to be disregarded, coins to be forgotten. But Jesus does not think as they do; no one can ever be insignificant in God’s eyes.

Both analogies also contain the theme of repentance. God rejoices over repentance because it is in our repentance that we can belong more fully to him. God himself moves our heart to repentance, and when we respond to that we allow God to work through our sins to bring us closer to him, rather than letting it keep us isolated from God and others. We see this in the gospel reading, for Jesus does not spend time with sinners in order to rejoice in their sin, rather, he spends time with them to challenge them to leave sin behind and embrace discipleship. He accepts them as they are but calls them to more, and he rejoices over their repentance because He knows that this is how they will find ultimate fulfillment.

In our first reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, Paul conveys what it is like to live this life of belonging to God: “For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord” (Rom 14:8). This is what gives our lives meaning as Christians. We are called to accept our value in the eyes of God and live our lives accordingly. When we repent, we give God the opportunity to rejoice because we are allowing Him to find us. Like the shepherd or the woman with the lost coin, God will go to great measures to find us. We need simply to let ourselves be found and remember that we have been found.

Today, let us take some time to reflect on how much God loves us each as individuals. Let us pray that we can repent of our selfishness and allow God to find us so that we may embrace the life of discipleship.

- Maria Morrow