Homily for 9 Aug 2016

9 Aug 2016

You go to the grocery store with somebody else.  And then, while you’re shopping, one of you decides to go over to another aisle to get something.  You’re separated.  And before you know it, it’s like your shopping companion has just disappeared. 

You go up and down the aisles, looking all over.  And then you catch a glimpse of them on the other side of the store, so you head that way.  Of course, when you get there, they’re gone.  It’d be so much easier to find your friend if they’d just stay put! 

And that’s similar to our spiritual life.  Sometimes it’s like we’re all alone, and God is nowhere to be found.  And so, we go searching.  We try this type of prayer, and that type of prayer.  We try a different spiritual writer, maybe we go to a different church for Mass.  We go in search of God.  And, every now and then, we catch a glimpse; and so, we go in that direction, only to found ourselves even more lost.

Of course, God’s not the one who’s moving around.  We are.  And God is probably thinking, “It’d be so much easier if they’d just stay put!”  It would be so much easier if we’d stop looking for God, and realize that God is already looking for us.  And we don’t have to worry—God will find us.

Jesus says, “If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them is lost, he’ll go in search of that one.  And if he finds it, he rejoices that he found it.”  But there’s that little word in there: “If.”  If he finds it.  The search isn’t always successful; and a lot of that depends on the little sheep that went wandering off.  If we want to be close to God, then sometimes we need to stop looking for God, and let him find us.

We can learn a lot from children and infants.  And one thing is to remember how to cry.  What happens when a child cries?  The mom or the dad comes.  If we’re lost in our spiritual life, the best thing we can do is stay put, and cry to our heavenly Father.  And God will come to the cry of his children.