And when he does find it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy and …calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.‘
Luke 15
I once heard about a Jesuit priest who sat at the bedside of his dying father. He encouraged his father to sleep, to save his strength. But every time his father would close his eyes, he would open them again just as quickly. He stared intently at his son with eyes full of love and a smile on his face. It was as if he could not get enough of looking at his son. The weakening man needed sleep and rest, but he could not take his eyes off his son. All he wanted was to be present with his son for this time, savoring it in the deep love and joy he had for him.
That’s the kind of love I think of with today’s celebration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a God who can’t take his eyes off of us. The readings center of God’s great love for us, particularly through the image of a shepherd. In the first reading from Ezekiel, God tells the beloved people of Israel that “I, myself will look after and tend my sheep.” We are sheep that belong to God, loved by God and looked after in a very personal way.
Jesus’ love for us is so powerful and described vividly in today’s gospel. A shepherd realizes one of his 100 sheep is missing. He leaves the other 99 and wanders through the hills until he finds the helpless animal. With great joy, he gently sets it on his shoulders and walks back to town, calling his friends to rejoice with him.
What a remarkable image that is! In our relationship with God, we wander away, our hearts filled with selfishness, anger, fear, jealousy or self-destructive habits. But Jesus follows us over the hills, searching us out. And when we simply turn and see him there, just accept Jesus into our small hearts, he rejoices and with the greatest of care, puts us on his shoulder and brings us back home where we belong.
Today is a day of rejoicing and of reveling in Jesus’ generous and lavish care for us. We can imagine his heart burning with love, his warm, patient eyes that can’t stop looking at us, and strong hands, ready to carry us lovingly home.
Maureen McCann Waldron
The most important part of my life is my family – Jim my husband of 47 years and our two children. Our daughter Katy, a banker here in Omaha, and her husband John, have three wonderful children: Charlotte, Daniel and Elizabeth Grace. Our son Jack and his wife, Ellie, have added to our joy with their sons, Peter and Joseph.
I think family life is an incredible way to find God, even in (or maybe I should say, especially in) the most frustrating or mundane moments.
I am a native of the East Coast after graduating in 1971 from Archbishop John Carroll High School in suburban Philadelphia. I graduated from Creighton University in 1975 with a degree in Journalism and spent most of the next 20 years in corporate public relations in Omaha. I returned to Creighton in the 1990s and completed a master’s degree in Christian Spirituality in 1998.
As our children were growing up, my favorite times were always family dinners at home when the four of us would talk about our days. But now that our kids are gone from home, my husband and I have rediscovered how nice it is to have a quiet dinner together. I also have a special place in my heart for family vacations when the kids were little and four of us were away from home together. It’s a joy to be with my growing family.
Writing a Daily Reflection is always a graced moment, because only with God’s help could I ever write one. I know my own life is hectic, disjointed and imperfect and I know most of us have lives like that. I usually write from that point of view and I always seem to find some sentence, some word in the readings that speaks right to me, in all of my imperfection. I hope that whatever I write is in some way supportive of others.
It’s an incredibly humbling experience to hear from someone who was touched by something I wrote. Whether the note is from someone across campus or across the world, it makes me realize how connected we are all in our longing to grow closer to God.
