Lost

This week’s Gospel is like a Trilogy. 3 parables about things that have been lost, and eventually found. The lost sheep – where the shepherd leaves the 99 to go look for that lost one. The lost coin – where the lady turns the house inside out to find it. And the lost son, – more commonly known as the parable of the prodigal son.

Many years back I was following a TV series called “Lost“. It went on for 6 seasons, a grand 121 episodes! It was an achievement for me just watching it to completion as I don’t follow many TV dramas. It revolved around the adventures of a bunch of plane crash survivors on a strange island. It was kinda realistic and intriguing and it kept me riveted til somewhere in the middle, there was this black smoke that would fly around the island killing the folks off one by one. Then it just seemed a little silly and non-plausible to me and I wanted to stop watching it. But because I had already invested so much time, I kept at it. Glued til the end. And guess what, it ended in a quasi-religious, philosophical kinda way where the characters walked into the white light. To me it signified like all the trials they went through on the island was purgatory. Totally never expected a religious ending!

But back to the Gospel, this draws parallels with our lives in some way. We land up on this tiny planet called earth and go off on our own individual adventures. Sometimes teaming up with other folks for support, falling in love, going through all sorts of trials and tribulations before eventually fading off and hopefully we get to walk into the white light at the end of it too.

And like most of the characters, we are LOST. We don’t know where to go, who to trust, but the Gospel tells us to just be like the prodigal son – stop the mess we’re making, acknowledge our errors, turn around and go back to the Father to seek forgiveness.

Then if we can align ourselves to the Father’s will. We will find true joy and peace in this life. It’s easier to be said then done of course, for myself included. I constantly struggle with the thought of “do I want to be lost in this world, or found by God?”