“What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it?”
And I always think to myself, “well, I wouldn’t?” Why would you put the 99 sheep at risk in order to find the 1? It’s bad business. If you are a shepherd, and your job is to protect your flock, and one wonders away, wouldn’t just count it as lost? Otherwise, if you go out looking for it, and leave the 99, you’re likely to come back to find that 45 other sheep had wandered away or worse, eaten by wolves, stolen by bandits. Kind of sounds like bad shepherding to me!
But this parable isn’t talking about prudent business decisions here, is it? Jesus is talking about the love of the father. If as a parent you have say six children, and one of them gets lost at the shopping mall, as I used to do…all the time…as a parent you wouldn’t say, “well, that’s okay, I have 5 other ones.” No parent would do that. So God, whose love for us is greater than even parents love for their children, goes to extravegent lengths to save those who have fallen away…all of us.
The parable of the woman with the lost coin is another strange image. She has 10 coins and loses 1 and then turns her whole house upside-down searching for it. The coin in question was a drachma, a silver coin. How much was a drachma worth? Some scripture scholars say it was about 65 cents, others a nickel, others a fraction of a penny. Still, with this coin, you couldn’t buy a loaf of bread for that. And yet, what does she do when she loses this coin? She turns her whole house upside-down. Maybe if I lost a twenty bucks, or a hundred, of course, but for a nickel? Not only does she rejoice when she finds this coin, she calls her neighbors over. Could you imagine, who would call up their neighbors and say, “come over, quick, I’ve got the best news, you’re not gonna believe it!” And they come over, and ask, what’s this about? And beaming, you hold up that shiny nickel…I found it! Your neighbors would slowly back up out of the house and call the men with the white coats.
And I think Jesus knew that this story was strange. For it’s not about the value of the coin…but about this amazing joy over the conversion of sinners. It illustrates just how important our souls are to God. God, in fact cares about our souls, much more than we do.
These parables, along with the parable of the prodigal son, remind us of how much God loves us, the great ends to which he is willing to go to save us, and the responsibility we have to protect our souls from evil now that they’ve been redeemed.
Why does God love us so? Why are our souls so valuable to God that he is willing to suffer and die for us—to go to extravagant lengths to save us?
What is the value of a soul? All the beauties of nature and all of the works of man do not compare in the smallest degree with the value of a soul. For nature is finite, every building or work of art is finite. But the soul is of eternal value. It will never die. You and I are going to live forever. Our bodies will die, but our souls, will never die. Your soul—your spirit—will live forever. And how we live our lives on earth, the moral choices we make, our assent of faith or our lack thereof, will determine whether our souls spend eternity in heaven or hell.
Yes, it is terrible when a person loses his health, or his money, or his friends.. But the loss of one’s soul because we fail to recognize our sinfulness and our need for God, that’s even worse, that is the truly greatest tragedy possible. On this 15th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the world trade center, we think of that word: tragedy. The loss of life, the violence, all of this is great great tragedy. But again, the greatest tragedy, is when a soul becomes destined for hell. A soul, destined for heaven, choosing hell through its failure to repent, is the greatest tragedy of all.
St. Peter says, God does not wish that any souls should parish, but that all should come to repentance. He gives every soul, each one of us, a super-abundance of opportunities to repent. But whether we truly repent or not will determine our eternal destiny.
It should be deeply concerning to us, when Catholics lose their faith, when they stop going to Church, when they enter invalid marriages, when they turn away from the moral teachings of the Church. Deeply concerning! For we know not the day nor the hour, when this earthly life will end and we will face our judge.
These beautiful parables this weekend remind us that God does not give up on us, he continues to reach out, to call out, He continues to search, to even do elaborate, extravagant things to bring souls to repentance and conversion…crazy things, like sending people like us out to bring in the lost sheep! If you have a family member who has fallen away from the faith, or a neighbor who has no faith, pray for them, fast for them, do penance for them, look for creative ways to bring them into contact with the saving Gospel.
We must also do our part in protecting our own souls from faithlessness. Each of us must commit to a healthy prayer life, studying the Bible daily, engaging in works of mercy. There are plenty of souls who came to church every week, but never prayed. Because they allowed the flame of faith to die out now they neither pray nor come to Church.
Prayer and reading scripture, making a frequent confession, is how we take the care of our souls seriously. Our souls are worth protecting, after all, they were worth dying for.
God comes to us in this Mass, in this Eucharistic celebration, he seeks us out to nourish us, feed us, bring us to repentance, to help us know his love for us. May we respond to his love through genuine repentance and an increased effort to cooperate with his grace for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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