A Word of Hope by Fr. Jordan DeGuire, OP, graduate student of liturgical studies at Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana.
How long would you be willing to search for someone or something you love? In today's gospel, Jesus tells of a shepherd who leaves 99 sheep to find the one that wandered off, and a woman who turns her whole house upside down to find a single lost coin.
Most of us would say it isn't worth the effort. You still have most of the sheep, most of the coins. Cut your losses and move on. But it's not the same with God.
In this episode of A Word of Hope, we begin with a story about a lost packet of hockey tickets, a prayer to St. Anthony, and a dig through the trash. It turns out we're willing to search for what we really want. And that's exactly how God looks at each one of us. Among the eight billion people alive today, and the roughly hundred billion who have ever lived, God sees you, knows you, and desires your salvation as if you were the only one. Even if you were, He would still have taken flesh, suffered, and died for you.
God doesn't calculate the cost. He doesn't cut His losses the way we do. Each person is precious to Him, which means two things: this is how much God values me, and this is how much God values every person I meet. Do I see them that way? Is it reflected in how I treat them?
⏱️ IN THIS VIDEO
00:00 – How long would you search for something you love?
00:08 – The lost hockey tickets
00:37 – A prayer to St. Anthony and a dig through the trash
00:47 – Two lessons: St. Anthony works, and we search for what we want
01:03 – Today's gospel: the lost sheep and the lost coin
01:21 – Why most of us would cut our losses
01:32 – It's not the same with God
01:54 – Among 100 billion people, God sees you
02:14 – He would have died for you alone
02:25 – God doesn't calculate the cost
02:35 – This is how God sees me
02:41 – This is how God sees everyone I encounter
03:00 – Love that sees each person as worth going after
🙏 TODAY'S INVITATION
Remember how much God values you: as if you were the only one. Then ask whether you see and treat the people around you with that same love. Love of God and love of neighbor don't calculate the cost.
#AWordOfHope #CatholicFaith #LostSheep #Luke15 #GodLovesYou