Are We Lost?

From The Anchor Lines, newsletter from St. James, Fairhope
By Fr. Mark Wilson

When I was in college, I received the gift of a cute little Irish Setter puppy. Since he was Irish and there was a war over there, I named him Pax, Latin for peace. The trouble with cute little puppies is they grow up. It is a trap. They chew on everything and they are prone to wander.

Pax was particularly clever at breaking out of my back yard. He ran a predictable course and his mild manners and good looks won him many treats from my neighbors. The truth is, Pax was a con artist.

At times he would disappear for a day or two only to show up on the front porch tired and hungry. Sometimes his journeys covered long distances. I got a call from our vet one day saying that the dog was in Hueytown. How he got there, I will never know. Another time, I got a call from Baptist Hospital in Montgomery, where I was living at the time, and this kind man said Pax was in the Emergency Room – not as a patient, but as a visitor. I drove to the hospital, about three miles from home, where I found Pax sitting on a gurney in the hall playing with an orderly. It was hysterical. The funny thing was, I don’t think that crazy dog ever knew he was lost.

I don’t think he decided to run off that afternoon. I think he was smarter than that, but maybe not. He probably followed a little fellow home from little league practice and ended up far from home.

In a sense, I think we humans experience similar journeys. Probably none of us consciously set out on a sinful course of action. Probably none of us would deliberately do something that we knew was wrong or contrary to God’s expressed will. Instead, like my screwball setter, our separation from God generally takes place over time. Gradually we drift through a process of small movements that may seem insignificant, but over time they can grow and create a great distance between us and God. Sin is not necessarily something we deliberately do, but because we are human, we sometimes tend to wander and we don’t realize how far we have drifted.

In Sunday’s gospel, Jesus tells a parable about sheep in the care of a shepherd (Luke 15:1-10). Nearly all of them are obedient and faithful. But one, like you and me, begins to wander off on her own. Slowly and unintentionally, this little lamb becomes separated from the security of
the shepherd and the other sheep. The shepherd goes looking for the lost one and returns carrying it on his shoulders.

The good news is whenever and wherever we stray, and it is our nature to do so, we can always come home and we will always be welcome. Some of us may need to come home. Remember, that when we accept God’s invitation to repent and return, there is always joy in heaven.

MHW