Tuesday of the Nineteenth Week of Ordinary Time

Lectio

    Matthew 18:1–5, 10, 12–14

Meditatio

“… will he not … go in search of the stray?”

    Why? Why would Jesus search for the stray? He has ninety-nine sheep that stayed in the herd. They are good sheep. This other one is a troublemaker—going away from the herd, getting lost, creating a problem. Just let him go. You still have ninety-nine. It’s a little like losing a penny on the street. No matter, a penny doesn’t make any difference.

But Jesus, nevertheless, goes after the stray sheep. Why? I believe part of the answer is given to us by Saint Paul. We are the body of Christ. How could Jesus let a part of his body be lost? The more sinful we are, the greater the failures of those in the community, the more tenderly Jesus seeks us out, for we are his body.

    What simple and mysterious logic! It is human to be angry at the one who causes problems for the group. It is divine to go search for it as if it were our own body. Recently I broke my arm. So I have had to care for my arm, keeping it still for six weeks, exercising it for twelve weeks, stretching it, lifting it, strengthening it, bending it in all different directions. I do these things because it is part of my body. I need my arm and cannot do without it. Similarly, Jesus seeks out each person (for all of us stray) because we are each part of his body, loved and needed and healed. He cannot do without us. It is a good lesson. The righteous style of my youth gives way to the wise patience of adulthood and to the indomitable love shown to us by Jesus. Love. It is all we are called to, over and over again—love. When the Apostle John was brought out to preach he said only these words, “Love one another.”

Oratio

    Good Shepherd, I am ashamed of the way I sometimes have thought and spoken about people in the Church because of their beliefs, their behavior, their attitudes, their sins. Teach me to love my brothers and sisters the way I love myself, to cherish them as I care for my own body. I thank you for the times you have come looking for me when I have strayed, and have brought me back.

Contemplatio

    I am your body, Jesus. What mystery! What gift!

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ORDINARY GRACE Weeks 18–34: Daily Gospel Reflections (By the Daughters of St. Paul)