In mutual seeking

WORD 2day: Thursday, 31st week in Ordinary time

November 3, 2022: Philippians 3: 3-8a; Luke 15: 1-10

The initial lines of the Gospel today say it all: the tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to Jesus and the pharisees were complaining. The ones who claimed that they were the 'chosen' people, were actually moving away from the Lord, while those who were labelled 'pagans' and 'sinners' were gerting more and more close to Jesus, and therefore to the Reign. 

We understand here the real sense of what Paul meant when he said, what really matters is not circumcision or no circumcision, not the labels and the titles that one holds on to, not the public image or the official role that one playa... but what really matters is the relationship that one has with the person of Christ.

Past glories, handed down traditions, legalistic requirements, ritual uprightness... these will not take someone all the way, however good, right and just they are. All that is expected of us is to get nearer and nearer, closer and closer, more and more immersed in a personal relationship with God, in and through Christ. 

God in fact keeps looking out for us as presented in the parables in the Gospel- like the shepherd and the woman! And when God knows our efforts, God doubles it up with grace, grace which comes in terms of our relationship with the person of Christ, before which everything else is trash. While it is a fact that God seeks, we cannot be found unless we let ourselves be and unless we seek God too! Yes, it needs to be a mutual seeking.