32nd Week in Ordinary Time (C) : Thursday 3rd November 2022

The two parables in the Gospel of today: the lost coin and the lost sheep, help us explore the dynamic at the heart of our spiritual life. In our quest for meaning and transcendence in life, we often think that God is ‘out’ there. Sometimes it is as if God is playing ‘Hide and Seek’ with us, and we are desperately searching for Him.

However, the irony is that God is the one who searches for us. The lost coin or the lost sheep symbolises the lost soul or the repentant sinner.

What makes God fret over one little soul? Why should He rejoice over one ‘lost’ soul that returns to the faith community? Isn’t He more consoled with the other ninety-nine, upright people?

This paradoxical way of perceiving the spiritual realm may remain mysterious and incomprehensible to our human mind, for the truth is that this is God’s very nature. The parables of the lost coin and sheep bring to our awareness what God does – God is searching for us when we are ‘lost’ in our faith journey due to sin, and recovering a lost soul when we repent is what God rejoices in doing.

In the First Reading, St. Paul considers his privileges before he was found and saved by Christ as rubbish, (vv. 5-8).

In the Gospel, Jesus eats and drinks with sinners, which signifies His acceptance and forgiveness of them. Today, through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, God forgives our sins, heals our wounded ‘souls’ and brings us back to the table of the Eucharist’s divine banquet.

Lord, I remember the wonder You have done for me.