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Created and redeemed, we belong entirely to God, our lavish
Giver. What a great gift!
In the Responsorial
Psalm we pray, "Let hearts rejoice who search for the Lord: Look to the
Lord in His strength; seek to serve Him constantly...He, the Lord, is our
God" (Ps 3b-4, 7a). The parables that Jesus tells in today's Gospel are
not talking about sheep and coins. He is talking about God's people; people who
are infinitely more precious to God than a lost sheep to a shepherd or a lost
coin to a woman looking throughout the house. We are those people. Jesus goes
out searching for us who are lost, and brings us back home to our Heavenly
Father.
We belong to God by a
double title. First, God created us. He gave us life without any merit of our
own. Life is Our Father's greatest gift to us. Secondly, God through His Son
has redeemed us. Even though we were devoid of any worth or merit as a sinful
people, God looked upon us with love and chose to reconcile us to Himself. In
doing so He freely gave us the means to everlasting life. Created and redeemed,
we belong entirely to God, our lavish Giver. What a great gift!
A person who owns a
piece of property may do with it as he or she chooses. They may build on it or
sell it or maybe even simply allow it to sit. The property belongs to the
person owning it. That is not the way we belong to God. A piece of property is
inanimate. It has no intelligence and no free will. We, on the other hand, have
both and Our Father wants a free response of love from us. We belong to God in
the sense that as intelligent, loving beings we are responsible to Him. God has
a right to our love and loyalty in somewhat the same way good parents and
grandparents have a right to the devotion of their children.
Surely we have nothing
to claim as our own. Everything comes to us from God. This is what St. Paul reminds us of in
the first reading today when he says we "Worship through the Spirit of
God...boast in Christ Jesus and do not put our confidence in the flesh"
(Phil 3:3bc).
We belong entirely to
God!