Tuesday, 06 December 2016 2nd Week of Advent
1st Reading: Is 40:1–11Gospel: Mt 18:12–14
Jesus said to his disciples, “What do you think of this? If someone has a hundred sheep and one of them strays, won’t he leave the ninety-nine on the hillside, and go to look for the stray one? And I tell you: when he finally finds it, he is more pleased about it than about the ninety-nine that did not get lost. It is the same with your Father in heaven: there they don’t want even one of these little ones to be lost.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
In its September 15, 2003 issue The Philippine Daily Inquirer published this news item: “Australia has offered to give away 57,000 live sheep to an unnamed country in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia rejected the shipment on health grounds, Trade Minister Mark Vaile said Sunday… Saudi Arabia refused to take the sheep last month after veterinarians found 6% of the sheep were suffering from the disease scabby mouth.”
The situation of these sheep is a perfect illustration of our status. Sin devalued us. There is nothing inherent in us that a divine being should find interest in. But unlike the Australian sheep in the news item above that begged for takers we ended up in the arms of a Savior. We have a God willing to leave 99 perfect sheep behind to run after the defective ones. But many of the defective ones prefer to hide from God. Some hide because they simply “HATE” the light. Others hide because they are “INDIGNANT” about certain experiences. Still others hide from God because they “DESIRE to keep both cakes and eat them too”. Some simply want to “EXTEND” their luck. We have arranged them to form the acronym “hide” for easy recall. Let’s take them up one by one.
Those who HATE the light are usually more at ease with darkness. Since they hate even a streak of light there is no way to drag them from out of darkness. Those who are INDIGNANT about certain negative experiences have better hopes. They will stop the sulking when they grow spiritually mature. But those who DESIRE to keep both cakes and eat them too will end up with nothing. They are those who want to be saved and yet indulge in carnal pleasures that the world could offer. The same can be said of those who EXTEND their luck. Their plan is to repent at the last minute. But nobody can feign repentance at the end of a dissipated life.
How the sheep ended in that Inquirer story will not happen to us because God values us for who we are. But if we continue to HIDE from God we call destruction and damnation upon ourselves. -(Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM., MAPM., MMExM., REB., Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com.
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