December 9/Second Tuesday of Advent
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? ~ Matt 18.12
In The Shepherd’s Life, his account of sheep-farming in England’s Lake District, the author James Rebanks describes a spring morning when a lamb went missing. As the baby’s agitated mother runs back and forth along the fence, the shepherd searches everywhere – his own field, the nearby brooks, the neighboring properties – and finally spots the little lost babe, stuck between the trunks of an old thorn tree. “You can lose hours looking for a lamb,” he tells us. But he searches anyway, and his fellow shepherds search, and shepherds around the world search for their sheep, too: it is what shepherds do when a lamb is lost. It is also, Matthew assures us, what God does. And perhaps that will bring comfort. Because each of us, at some point, is going to be that stray lamb. We may wander off from the flock without realizing it, drawn to the greener grass of a pleasure-oriented life. We may creep away furtively, not wanting our shepherd to see the ill-advised choices we make – or not wanting him to stop us from making them. We may bound off in anger, resentful at being treated unfairly, or chafing at the rules of the flock. We may not have a mother who runs up and down the fence in agitation, but we do have a loving shepherd who simply will not let us go. In the Preface of the Eucharistic prayer in the Roman Catholic Missal, we acknowledge that Christ humbled himself to be born and to dwell among us “out of compassion for the waywardness that is ours.” How fortunate we are to have a compassionate shepherd in Christ, who knows when we are lost and searches tirelessly until he enfolds us in his loving, forgiving arms.
Lord God, Steadfast shepherd of your flock, Grant that, when I am lost and alone, I may trust in you to seek me and find me. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120925.cfm
To hear the incomparable Burl Ives sing “There Were Ninety and Nine” (1969), click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDL-ydXJnu4
