St. Patrick's Online Bulletin

One of the challenges we face is to control our tempers. When we lose our temper we might feel smug and superior for a brief time or we might feel awful and sorry. Ironically one of the best things we can do is to lose our tempers in the sense of never allowing them to erupt again. That is not easy. The media and society we live in each have a very angry and violent tone. We have road rage, political hatred, and negative words about so many people and situations. People disappoint us and if they are not close friends or relatives we so easily speak of them in disparaging ways. Today’s Gospel presents us three parable about people who search for and find what was lost. In the first one the shepherd searches for and finds his lost sheep. He is filled with joy. In the second one the woman loses a valuable coin and searches diligently until she finds it. Like the shepherd she is elated. The third parable is the one about the prodigal son. Here we see the ultimate treasure we can lose and find - the loss of a loved one through misunderstanding, greed, or jealousy. When a close relationship is lost and abandoned there are no real feelings of joy. We think, “What did I do wrong?” “Can’t he/she see what went wrong?” “Do I want to work toward reconciliation and reunion?” “What can I do to bring healing and love once again?” The answer is simple but not always so easy to live out: we need humility and love.