Homily: October 22, 2024, Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time (Lost).
“Brothers and sisters: You were at that time without Christ, alienated from the community of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world.”
What does it mean to be ‘without Christ’? St. Paul says it means to be ‘alienated’, a ‘stranger’, ‘without hope and without God’.
To me, that means being lost, no goal, no direction, no purpose, no reason to exist.
Have you ever experienced being lost?
When I was in third grade, my family went on a Marian pilgrimage to Tamil Nadu, which is quite far away from our home. Some families from our neighborhood went also.
There were thousands of other pilgrims at the site, all of us on the same path were moving along, packed against one another, like a giant river of people. My parents gave strict orders to hold on to each other’s hands tight and not to let go nor stray away from each other.
I was holding on to my papa’s hand, but the crowd was pushing so much that at one point, I lost my grip and was quickly separated from my papa. I looked towards him in shock, but the moving crowd pulled me farther away. I was too small to push through the huge crowd.
I was so afraid that I cried and managed to enter the main church. Then I spotted one of our neighbors and ran to him, staying with him until my parents found me.
Being lost is terrible. The feelings of fear, anxiety, restlessness and hopelessness are crippling. Not knowing where I was, which way to go or what would happen next was a most frightening experience.
Living without Christ is being lost. Our souls are fearful, directionless, restless and hopeless.
Last year, during my visit to my sister and her family, I took my then two-year-old nephew to a nearby park to play. We had a lot of fun for about an hour, then suddenly he became very quiet and asked, “Where is mommy?”
He had just realized that he was without his mom, the one who was his provider, protector and most familiar person. She was his world.
I tried to distract him with toys and invited him to play, but he was no longer at peace, he began to cry. Nothing I did could calm or console him. Only his mom could give him the sense of peace and security he needed.
People without Christ live in a similar state of insecurity and fear. Without Christ, our souls are restless, anxious and lost. With Christ, we are confident, courageous, at peace. Because all of us are created through Him and for Him.
May we always have Jesus in our life, may we never lose our hold on His hand, may we always enjoy the fullness of His presence, His protection, providence and peace.
Amen.
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