We’ve all been lost before, when we couldn’t find our way. When we’re lost, it is not a very good feeling. I remember a couple of times when I was walking to one of the villages in the jungle as a missionary in Ecuador, thinking I had made a wrong turn or didn’t know where I was going. I was terrified. I didn’t know how I would find my way back, I didn’t know who would help me. Luckily, I always seemed to find my way back somehow, or I always found someone to give me directions.
Today, we hear Jesus telling the parable of the lost sheep. If only one of a flock of 100 sheep is lost, the good shepherd finds him and brings him back. Jesus is that good shepherd for us. No matter how lost we feel, Jesus is there ready to carry us on his shoulders, helping us in our time of need.
There a lot of different shepherds that the Lord has entrusted to care for his flock throughout history. The saints represent the image of the Good Shepherd in different ways. Martin de Porres, a Dominican lay brother from Peru from the 16th century, is the saint we celebrate today. Martin faced a lot of discrimination and racism in colonial Latin American society, being the illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman and a freed African slave. The shame Martin’s father felt over this reality caused him to abandon his family. However, Martin never gave up: he used his gifts to contribute to the Body of Christ, even though that was not always so easy for him. Martin's compassion for the poor, for animals, and for the sick of Lima, Peru made him a legend in his own time. Even in the midst of a society and a Church that put a lot of obstacles in his path, his compassion and humble nature won over people's hearts and brought many to God. The broom became his symbol, because he would bring a broom with him to clean the living quarters of the sick and the poor when he would visit them.He eventually founded an orphanage and a children's hospital in Lima, Peru to care for the poor, and even a refuge that would care for sick and injured animals. From the alms he collected, he fed over 150 poor people a day. Martin was canonized as a saint by Pope John XXIII in 1962 – he is the patron saint of the poor and of social justice. He is still known today as the saint of the broom. We remember Martin de Porres today and unite our prayers with his prayers. His example of faith and how he reached out to the poor, the marginalized, and the lost ties in well to our Gospel parable of the lost sheep.
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