Daily Reflection – Dec 11, 2018
Tuesday 11 December 2018
First Reading: IS 40:1-11
Responsorial Psalm:
The Lord our God comes with power.
PS 96:1-2, 3 AND 10AC, 11-12, 13
Gospel Reading: MT 18:12-14
Today’s Note: Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent
Gospel Reading:
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:
“It is never the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.” MT 18:14
Perhaps you know what it is to lose someone precious. I know people who have lost children, and a part of them looks for that child all their life long. I remember someone telling me once about a woman whose son was killed during the Second World War. Every day, she would catch the tram into Circular Quay because, “Michael is coming home today,” as she would repeatedly tell her neighbours. Her heart could not take in the truth that Michael was gone, and he wasn’t coming back. Life without her son was inconceivable.
That is the God we meet today in the Gospel, the God who relentlessly looks for you and tells everyone that you are coming home today, because life without you is inconceivable. Francis Thompson (1859-1907), a drug addict, wrote a haunting poem, The Hound of Heaven, describing God’s relentless search for us. Francis actually kept running away from him:
I fled him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled him, down the arches of years …
and in the mist of tears
I hid from him,
But no matter where he went, God found him:
Rise, clap my hand, and come!
God says to Francis.
Perhaps these words speak to you? So, no matter where, or how, you are, clasp his hand today. He is looking for you.
A little prayer to repeat often (or say this in the name of someone else):
I am here Lord, come and find me. Amen.
