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God's
Promise to Come
Fr.
George Smiga
September
15 - 16, 2007
Luke
15: 1 - 32
A
young family with four children decided to take a camping
trip in Yosemite National Park . The scenery was breathtaking
and it was wonderful having the family together for vacation.
Their only concern was that the youngest child, a boy of 8
years old named Peter, was a bit too anxious to explore the
park. Whenever he would see anything that was unusual or different
he would want to run over to examine it more closely. Now
his parents warned him how dangerous it was to wander off
on his own, and the boy tried to obey their directions. But
one morning as the family was enjoying a particular beautiful
mountain meadow, they realized that Peter was not with them.
Immediately they began calling his name and searching for
him in ever widening circles. But they had no success. They
notified the park rangers and soon there were 15 – 20 people
combing that region trying to find the boy. With each passing
hour the parents became more frightened as they imagined what
had happened to their son. But just before sunset one of the
rangers saw the boy sitting on a rock by a waterfall and he
called out his name. Peter had his head in his lap crying.
When he heard the call, he looked up and the first thing that
he said to the ranger was, “Are you here from my father?”
“Well
yes,” the ranger said, “there are many people looking for
you and your parents are very concerned. What have you been
doing?”
“Waiting,”
the boy said. “Waiting for someone to come. My father told
me that if I ever got lost I should find a safe place and
wait. And he would come for me.”
“You
must have been frightened” said the ranger.
“Very,”
said the boy, “but my father promised he would come, and my
father doesn't lie to me”.
This
simple story of Peter might help us appreciate the dramatic
claim that Jesus makes in today's Gospel. He promises us that
when we are lost, God will come for us. Like a shepherd looking
for a lost sheep, like a woman searching for a lost coin,
God will never rest until God finds us and saves us.
Now
that is a beautiful and important insight but it requires
faith to believe it. Anyone one of us can find ourselves in
a situation where we feel lost, where we feel there is little
hope, where we feel abandoned and alone. In those situations
it is difficult to believe that God is coming for us. It is
difficult not to conclude that God is passive or unconcerned.
But instead believe that God is active and on the way to find
us.
Like
Peter what we need to do is wait and watch for God's coming.
Perhaps there is some issue in our family, at work, or school
that troubles and dismays us. We keep asking ourselves why
is this so difficult why can't this be different? Of course
we are always required to make our best decision to attempt
to resolve the difficulty. But even as we do our best, we
must also watch for God's arrival. Somehow in that trouble
or issue God has promised us to come and show us the way.
Perhaps we have been hurt by loss or rejection. We feel empty
and alone. We say to ourselves, why can't I get beyond this?
Why am I stuck here in my grief and my pain? Even as we do
our best to find the way forward, our faith tells us that
we must also wait and watch for the particular ways in which
God will come into our loss and show us life. Perhaps we are
worried about someone we love, someone whom we are afraid
is going to make a disastrous decision, someone who is sick,
someone who seems unable to respond to our love. We feel helpless.
We know that there is nothing we can do on our own to turn
that situation around. Even as we watch for a time and an
opportunity in which we can do something positive, we are
still asked to believe that God loves the people in our life
even more that we do, that God is on the way to find them
and to save them.
Now
this arrival of God in our lives is not magic. It seldom comes
as a lightening bolt, crashing in to our life and eradicating
all trouble or fear. But as people of faith the Gospel challenges
us to remember that God will not forget us. Even in our darkest
moments we must be on the watch for God's arrival which can
bring us some courage, some insight, some growth, some joy.
It is easy to believe in God's love when everything is going
well, when one good thing follows another. But it is a challenge
to believe that God is actively coming to us when our life
is falling apart, when we see little hope, when we feel alone.
But it is in those moments that we are challenged to believe
and to trust that God is on the way.
It
today's Gospel Jesus makes an important promise, He assures
us that God is coming and we must watch for God's arrival.
We might be frightened and discouraged but we are challenged
to believe that God has promised to come and find us—and our
God does not lie.
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