IN almost every church I have been assigned to I noticed that there is a box in a room with a handwritten sign that reads "Lost and Found." It's quite amusing, for me, to see what's in it: the most popular items in the box are glasses and rosaries, but sometimes one may find the occasional baby shoe, keys and wallets. Once I even found an adult shoe. Just one adult shoe. And it always made me wonder, who left the church without realizing that one shoe was missing?
More interestingly, however, was the fact that many of those items would remain in the box for a long time. They were left there until the head usher would empty the box in the garbage can for the yearly cleaning. Why is it that people did not claim their items? were they not valuable? perhaps, they didn't realize they were missing? or perhaps they didn't realize that there is a Found and Lost box?
The Church is very much like a Lost and Found box. Here, we can find people of all kinds and types and all have one thing in common: we either are lost and we are waiting for someone to claim us, or we have been found and, out of gratefulness, we celebrate our returning Home.
Meditating on today's Gospel ignited in me the desire to be Found. Not that I am lost, at the least I don't think I am. But because I know that there are parts of me that get lost in the day to day activities and, at times, they never come home. Life has a way to pulling us in all different directions, both physically and spiritually. Sometimes a conversation turns into a discussion that gets out of hand and, without even knowing it, I leave something of me there... maybe my peace of mind, or my patience. Then I go to the next event of the day and I realize that I am short and rude.
Fragments of me, all over. Lost and in need to be found. Do I realize that God considers me to be valuable? So valuable that He sent His only Son that I could be found and brought Home, where I belong? Do I consider myself as "God's Valuable?"
Jesus calls me to come to Him because He is doing the will of the Father: that nobody may be lost. So, I want to respond to this; I go to Him, fragmented or not, even with one shoe on. I want Him to find me. I want to be found. (I always say that line with the same emphasis that Gandalf used in The Lord of the Rings movie!).
And knowing that He's attracting me to Him gives me strength to approach all things with Love. I can only become myself in Christ because He gives me my own true identity. Then, the fragment that is lost can be found in Christ-who-lives-in-the-other. Jesus will not let me go. He's constantly giving Himself to me, and in so doing, He gives me to myself.
I want to live today with the awareness that Christ is finding me, right here and right now. And, as I discover Him in me, around me and in the other, I want to make it easier for Him to bring me to the Father.
