9/15/2013 – Exodus 32:7-14; 1 Tim 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-10 – Youth Mass

     Sometimes we can get lost in life.   In today’s readings, we hear about different ways about getting lost.  In the story of Exodus in the first reading, the people of Israel have escaped slavery in Egypt, but have lost their faith in God on their journey.  They worship the golden calf, a man-made idol, instead of worshipping the Lord who liberated them.   In the 2^nd reading, Paul tells us about how he was lost in life before his conversion to the Way of Jesus. Paul was trapped in an endless cycle of arrogance and unbelief until he found a new life in God’s love & mercy.   In the Gospel, Jesus tells us about the shepherd who searches for the lost sheep, the woman who searches her house to find a lost coin, and the angels of God who rejoice over the lost sinner who finally repents.   These readings teach us about what we can do when we get lost on our journey of faith, about what we need to do once we are found again.  

     We feel incredible joy when we find something that was lost; we’re much happier at having found the lost object than if it had never lost it.   Think about the last time you lost or misplaced a set of keys and had difficulty finding them.   We take keys for granted when they’re always there, when they’re in our pocket each time we unlock the front door or the car.  But, when we misplace our keys, what a relief and joy it is to finally find them.

      Sometimes we’re lost ourselves & don’t even realize it.  I remember one leg of the long pilgrimage hike I went on in Spain the first time that I went back in 2003.  I left the city of Leon walking ahead of a friend that morning.  I kept walking & walking, finally making it to the village destination that afternoon – the trouble was the village I expected was Valverde, but I arrived in a different village, Villar de Mazarife.  I had followed the arrows on the pilgrimage route that day: how did I end up in a village that wasn't even marked on my map?   After asking other pilgrims, I realized that this stage of the pilgrimage had 2 alternative routes – something my guidebook didn’t even mention.  I had followed a route that I didn’t even know existed – I was lost compared to where I wanted to be, but wasn’t even aware of that fact!  Luckily, my friend ended up taking the same alternative route, and we both met up in the same village that afternoon.

      Sometimes, we don’t recognize how lost we are or how we’ve strayed from our faith.  In those moments, we’re called to recognize our need for God’s grace, to open ourselves for him to guide us.   God invites us to participate in the process of redemption by calling us to a constant cycle of conversion  God asks us to acknowledge the ways we’ve contributed to the brokenness of our own lives and the brokenness of the world.

      As we hear these Bible stories, we’re reminded that we don’t achieve redemption on our own – redemption is always God’s work.   Just as Jesus brings back the lost sheep because the sheep can’t find his way back on his own, God finds us, he touches us, and he brings us back in a way that we can’t do for our own selves.  It’s up to us to turn our lives toward God, to look God-ward no matter where we are and what we’re doing on our journey of faith. 

      Today, as we hear about finding our way back after we get lost, we celebrate Catechetical Sunday.   The word “catechesis” describes the effort in which we the Church make disciples in Christ.  Our word “catechesis” comes from the Greek word “to echo the teaching.”

      We give thanks for our catechists today, for all of our teachers and our volunteers who help us pass down our faith here to all of you – our children and our youth.   Pope Benedict XVI said last year that the people should not be regarded as “collaborators” of the clergy in the work of evangelization and bringing others to the faith, but, rather, as people who are really “co-responsible” for the Church's being and acting.  I like the image of the Door of Faith that we have been recognizing all this year.   Open the Door of Faith is the theme for Catechetical Sunday.  We need to help open that Door of Faith for ourselves, but we help others through that door as well.  And I don’t think opening the Door of Faith is an action that only happens once in our lives.  We go through the door each day – and we help others through that door again and again as well.   In many ways, our catechists and our teachers of religious education are responsible for opening many doors.

      We might feel a bit lost or confused at this moment in our lives on our journey of faith.   Or we may feel like we have finally found the right path for us at this moment.  No matter where we are, lost or found, Christ is seeking us out.  The Door of Faith is there for us to go through.