Angelus Prayer: When we are lost, God is always looking for us

Charlotte Smedes – Vatican

Do we care about those who have lost? This question and others were asked by the Pope during his Sunday evangelization prayer, where he described how God worries about those who are far away. The Pope stressed that everyone is important and that no one should be lost.

Below are the entire pope’s angels:

Today’s gospel presents three parables of mercy (see Luke 15:4-32) – it is called so because it shows us the merciful heart of God. Jesus gave parables in response to the Pharisees and the scribes. And they grumbled and said among themselves: “This man receives sinners and eats with them” (verse 2). It bothered them that Jesus was with sinners. For them it was a religious scandal. But by welcoming sinners and eating with them, Jesus reveals that God is like this: God does not exclude anyone, but welcomes all, because he loves all as his children. Everyone without exception everyone! These three parables summarize the essence of the gospel: God is our Father, and He comes looking for us every time we are lost.

absence anxiety

The main characters in the parables, representing God, are a shepherd looking for the sheep he lost, a woman finding a coin she dropped, and the father of the prodigal son. Let’s talk about one characteristic that these three main characters have in common. We can identify the common feature of absence anxiety – you miss your sheep, you miss your coin, and you miss your son – absence anxiety – in these three proverbs you worry about something they are missing. In principle, the three could have taken it easy, if they thought: one sheep was lost to the shepherd, but ninety-nine remained with him – “it is not dangerous to go astray.” The woman dropped a coin, but nine remained. And the Father also has another son, an obedient son, to take care of him. Why do we think of the other who left to live a wild life? But no, they worry – the shepherd, the woman, and the father – for the lost: for the sheep, for the coin, for the son who went his way. He who loves the absent, longs for the absent, searches for the lost, and waits for the one who went on his way. for number You must get lost.

God always waits with open arms

Brothers and sisters, such is God: he is not “quiet” if we leave him, he is sad, and his bowels tremble. He sets out to search for us and does not give up until he puts us in his arms again. The Lord does not count the loss and the risk, he has the heart of a father and a mother, and he suffers in the absence of his loved ones. “But why does he suffer when his son is lazy and left him?” It ache and suffers. God suffers when we are far away. And when we get lost, it waits for us to come back again. Let us remember this: God is always waiting for us with open arms, no matter what life situation we find ourselves in. As the psalmist says, he does not sleep, he is always watching over us (cf. 121.4-5).

Do we really care about those who are lost?

Now let us look at ourselves and ask ourselves: Do we imitate the Lord in this respect, do we also worry when one of them is missing? Do we yearn for absentees who have turned their backs on the Christian life? Do we carry this inner anxiety, or is our group completely pure? In other words: Do we really miss those lost in the congregation? Or do we just pretend we miss them, while our hearts are untouched? Do I really miss those missing in my life? Or are we doing well in our groups – “I am in an excellent apostolic group” – without any sympathy for the distant? It’s not just about “opening up to others”; This is the gospel! The shepherd did not say in the proverb: “I have ninety-nine sheep, so why do I mean to go and look for what was lost and waste time?” Instead, walk away. Let’s think about our relationships: Do I pray for those who don’t believe, for those who are far away, and for those who are bitter? Do we attract the distant with God’s style, which is closeness, compassion, and tenderness? Father asks us to take care of distant children. Let’s think of someone we know, someone we have on our side, who might not have heard anyone say to them, “You know what? You are important to God.” “But my situation is chaotic, I have done many terrible things …” – “For God you are important,” say it, “You are not looking for him, but he is looking for you.” Let us occupy ourselves with these questions, let our hearts be broken, and pray to Our Lady, the Mother who never tires of looking out for us, for her children, and for taking care of us.