Year A
Philippians 3:3-8a
Psalm 105:2-3.4-5.6-7 (R. 3b)
Luke 15:1-10
THE ONE WHO SEARCHES
If the Lord does not illuminate our mind and touch our heart with his divine grace, in vain world we hear the divine word. We may be preached to, instructed and so on, but if God's Spirit does not inspire or illuminate the person to whom the words are been communicated to, in vain does the preacher or instructor preach ir teach.
It is not Man who searches for God, and it is equally not Man who help others to know God. It is God who searches for Man, and it is God who works in men to draw or convey himself to others. God is All in All. This is what today's readings draw our attention to.
John 6:63'It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh has nothing to offer. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.
In the first reading, Paul emphasized the fact that the Spirit gives life while the letter kills (cf.2 Corinthians 3:6). Without the Spirit, the understanding of the letters is difficult. The difference between the letter and the spirit is that, the spirit is the life of the letter while the letter is sought of the body to the spirit. Without the spirit there is no life in the letter, and without the letter we cannot approach the spirit. Thus both the letter and the spirit are important, but the spirit gives life to the letter and inspires repentance and conversion in us.
There is one intriguing point that came up during my meditation on the gospel today which I think links both the two parables but if not looked at carefully as part of God's plan, will lead to the idea that God allow us to get lost so that he will find us latter.
Think about it, how can the Sheep get lost in the midst of the Sheep while the Shepherd was guiding them or protecting them? And how can the Coin get lost from the woman if she was in charge of the coins? What was the Shepherd doing before the Sheep got lost? What was the woman doing before the Coin got lost? Evidently they allowed the Sheep and the coin to get lost.
This can lead to a greater question, what was God doing when humans fell? What does God do while people are about to sin or are sinning? I think today's gospel gives a clearer answer to this question. If God is freedom and whomever he acts on the most is more free, just as the Shepherd acted more on the lost Sheep and the woman acted more on the coin, so does God acts on the one who is about to sin (cf. Genesis 2: 17; 4:7).
God acts more on the sinner or the one about to sin to inspire in him a contrite spirit (cf. Psalm 51:10), so that he or she will truly repent from his or her sins. Thus when God acts more on humans, there is recreation, there is newness of life.
By Sylvester Amakye-Quayson.
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