Thursday of week 31 in Ordinary Time, Gospel: Luke 15:1-10
In today’s Gospel, Jesus presents the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin, revealing a beautiful truth about God’s love: no one is insignificant, and no one can be ignored. The shepherd leaves the ninety-nine sheep to search for the one that is lost, while the woman carefully searches her house until she finds the missing coin. Both parables show that God’s love is not satisfied simply because the majority are safe; it remains concerned about the one who is missing. This challenges our tendency to evaluate people according to their usefulness, importance, achievements, or closeness to us. We may easily overlook those who are difficult, distant, forgotten, or seemingly unimportant. Yet Jesus teaches us that every person has an irreplaceable value before God. The lost sheep is not abandoned because it wandered away, and the lost coin does not lose its worth because it is missing. A person’s dignity does not disappear because of weakness, failure, distance, or sin. Moreover, Jesus does not merely wait for the lost to return; He reveals a God who actively searches, welcomes, and rejoices. This is the heart of the message of Christ: mercy that reaches beyond our boundaries and refuses to exclude anyone. Our discipleship must reflect this same attitude. We cannot claim to love God while remaining indifferent to those whom He continues to seek. Sometimes the person most in need of our attention is precisely the one we find easiest to ignore. True love is not measured only by how well we care for those already close to us, but also by our willingness to reach out to those who are missing, forgotten, or excluded. In God’s heart, every person matters, and the joy of heaven is renewed whenever even one person is brought back into the embrace of His love. Let’s reflect: Is there someone in my life whom I have overlooked, avoided, or considered unimportant, and am I willing to take the first step towards that person with the same attention, mercy, and love that God shows to each of us?
Don Giorgio