A reflection for the Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent

6 December 2022
A view of the statue of Christ, the Good Shepherd, at The Good Shepherd Parish, Plumpton. Image: Diocese of Parramatta

 

Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent

Readings: Isaiah 40:1-11; Psalm 95(96):1-3, 10-13; Matthew 18:12-14

6 December 2022

 

“It is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost” – Matthew 18:14

Today’s Gospel passage recounts the story of the shepherd finding his lost sheep. Let’s look at that lost sheep. A sheep is something more than a lost coin, which is to say, it has mobility, sense, appetites, and so on. Bishop Robert Barron, the former Archbishop of Los Angeles and current Bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota, noted once when he was on retreat at the Abbey of Tamie in the Alps, he heard the desperate bleating of a sheep who had fallen into a pit. All night he cried, knowing that he was in trouble and hoping that someone would come to save him.

There are souls who are like the lost sheep. Spiritually compromised, unable fundamentally to help themselves, they are at least aware that they are in a mess. They are like people who commence the AA process by admitting that they have hit bottom and are out of control. They bleat, they cry for help.

And God finds them—and when he finds them, he carries them back, for they are unable to move on their own.

Pray that we can simply trust that no matter what happens, God will always find us.

With thanks to Holy Name of Mary Parish, Hunters Hill, who have supplied these daily Advent and Christmas 2022 reflections from their publication Daily Inspirations of Faith: A Season of Prayer – Advent to Epiphany 2022-2023

 

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