Thank you Lord for constantly looking for me

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Meditation on Tuesday, 2nd week of Advent, year B1

We can say that with our lives we constantly write a history of stumbles, falls and rising, of losing the right path and returning to it. Are we aware that God is with us in this story? The answer to this question arises from a series of subsequent ones: How do we feel about His presence? A sense of security and peace? The shame and desire to hide experienced by Adam and Eve? Anger and frustration because we have fallen into the trap of an enemy circling nearby to devour us (cf. 1 Pet 5: 8)?

Or maybe we do not have a complete sense of the presence of God, which we have put on the shelf “Christmas traditions” a long time ago? It is possible that we have also squeezed into concern for the maturation of our faith, and God, whom we recall once a year when taking out Christmas decorations, remains God in pre-communion catecheses.

In such a situation it is difficult for us to believe in his interest in man and in the power to solve our “adult” problems. As we struggle with life alone, we lose faith that he is the true, ideal Father, and that the covenant he made with Abraham for ever is also unbreakable for us, to such an extent that even our unfaithfulness does not break it. Meanwhile, the confrontation of human ephemeris fidelity to himself and God with his absolute fidelity causes us frustration.

Jesus, like a good shepherd, sets out again and again in search of everyone who is lost. He leaves the rest of the herd to find you and me. Without expecting us to call him, ignoring the fact that we often do not realize our own loss at all, he finds us and without a word of reproach he embraces us. Still, we don’t know something about our heart to just believe it.

If you’ve read up to this point, I suggest that you take the risk of going one step further. Spend 5 minutes searching in your heart for a piece put in there by God – a tool that will help you trust Him as the Father.

You don’t have to, but if you want, give it a try. Do something good for yourself. May these few minutes of prayer be a gift for yourself, so that this Advent may actually be an expectation full of trusting joy.

Now try to find a place where no one will stop you from focusing.

Turn off the phone.

Sit back.

Mute yourself.

Notice that God is with you.

“If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, won’t he leave the ninety-nine in the mountains and go look for the one that got lost?” (Mt 18:12).

Recall when you felt depressed by another fall, with no hope of being able to overcome your weakness, or perhaps even worse than others because of it.

You are trying to find a solution, but because you have stopped trusting yourself, you also have a hard time believing in God’s unconditional forgiveness. The evil you do separates you from others. You feel lonely, vulnerable and lost like a lost lamb. Or maybe, even though you err like others, you prefer not to see personal fault in your stumbles and falls?

Have the courage to accept that you are a lost sheep that calls out for the Shepherd when he loses sight of him.

You are invoking Him.

And He leaves 99 sheep and goes in search.

Finds you.

Looks at you lovingly.

Even though she knows everything about you, she doesn’t foreshadow punishment.

Without a word of reproach, she takes you in her arms.

Listen to this, he says.

Tell Him how you feel when you are in His embrace…

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit …