“He was lost and is found”
Jesus compares man to a coin, sheep and a lost son in the three parables. What does this tell us about ourselves? The Church through the Gospel readings and the imagery of a coin, sheep and a lost son is teaching man the “meaning of his own existence, that is, the innermost truth about himself.”[i] In each parable a value is restored. Most central to each person is the dignity they have as a person. The prodigal son squanders his inheritance, which are all material things. These material things are lost and lost forever. What is not lost forever is his dignity, dignity although temporarily lost, can always be restored. The value of man is at the heart of these parables. Saint Theresa of Avila makes an analogy of man comparing him and his choice in life to that of flowers in a garden. Flowers that are cut off from the vine end up decomposing, loosing their support, cease to reach for the heavens, cease to grow and fall to the ground unnoticed as they decompose. “For so long as I am in myself, my Lord, and without You, I can do nothing but be cut off like the flowers in this garden, and this miserable earth will become a dunghill again as before.”[ii] Jesus is the vine and we are the branches, if we are cut off from the vine, we are dead and fall to the ground and decompose. If we stay connected to Christ the vine we are supported, raised from the ground and reach toward heaven. “We read the parable of the sheep that was found and then the parable of the coin that was found. Each time there is an emphasis on the same joy that is present in the case of the prodigal son...This joy indicates a good that has remained intact: even if he is a prodigal, a son does not cease to be truly his father’s son; it also indicates a good that has been found again, which in the case of the prodigal son was his return to the truth about himself.”[iii]
Saint Teresa says that “as long as we are in our self” we can do nothing, what does she mean? How are we “in our self”?
Lost Coin analogy (by Saint Gregory the Great)[iv]
The lost coin – the human race
The other nine coins – are the nine choirs of angels, Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels and Angels[v]
The lamp – The light is the Wisdom of God which appeared in human flesh, The Word made Flesh, Jesus Christ the Light of the World. “A lamp is a light which burns in a vessel of clay; and Light in a vessel of clay, is the Divinity in our flesh.”[vi] Psalm 22: 16 speaks of Christ on the Cross, “As dry as potsherd [clay] is my throat; my tongue sticks to my palate; you lay me in the dust of death.” Jesus, Light of the World was laid into the dry clay of humanity.
Saint Gregory the Great says that the woman lost her coin when man, who had been created after God’s image, strayed from that image by committing sin. A coin bears the image of the king/leader up on it. This short parable is the story of salvation history. Out of love God created everything and, most precious to Him, was the creation of the angels and humans. Through sin the human race strayed and although created in the image and likeness of God[vii], sin caused the image to become blurred and distorted. The loving God, the Creator, the Father desired, like the Good Shepherd, that not even one would be lost, He “wills everyone to be saved and come to knowledge of the truth.”[viii] For this reason the Light of the World was put into the clay of humanity (lamp) so that humanity (the lost coin) would be found, held again in the hands of God and once again, the creature would bear the image of the Creator. This mystery is summed up in the Liturgy of the Eucharist, while during the Offertory Prayer, the deacon, or Priest, pours wine and a little water into the chalice, saying quietly: “by the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.”[ix]
What souls has God placed in your care? God has placed our soul in our hands as well as those we have authority over and those who are influenced by us, for example younger brothers, sister, children, etc. The value of a drachma [coin] was about 22 cents.[x] The woman had 222 cents or $2.22. She only lost 22 cents but still had $2. God wills that all are saved, God is not satisfied with have 9 coins, He wants 10. He is not satisfied with $2 he wants $2.22. Every cent, every soul matters! None can be lost! Jesus says, “I have not lost any of those you gave me.”[xi] The woman was given 10 coins and, none will be lost. We are given by God the care of our own soul and the souls of others; we must be as diligent as Jesus and as the woman. If we are given 10 souls to care and only one is lost, we must work and pray so that none may be lost. This diligence is expressed in the Marine Corp motto, “No Man left Behind”. The value of man ultimately is the soul and no soul can be left behind.
How is man like the coin? A coin is made by man; it is formed from the elements and has an image of its maker on it. Adam was formed from the element sand formed in the image and likeness of his maker. A coin is helpless and vulnerable, but it has value. Man is helpless and vulnerable, but has intrinsic value. A $20 bill can be wadded up, thrown in water, dried out, chewed up by an animal and even ripped in one corner, but it still has value. Man can be beaten down, shoved around, chewed up, spit out and even torn but man still has value. If money is “lost” it still has value but cannot be used. If man is “lost” in sin, he still has value, but cannot be used by God. He cannot live out the potential that God has called him to.
If we have value, why can’t we redeem our self, pay off our own debt? To redeem “is to buy or pay off”. Money is only good if you have it! For example you cannot buy something from a store if you left your money at home, or even if you lost your money. Christ’s life redeems us, pays off our debt. We have value, but that value is “lost” in sin. Christ’s life has value and is not “lost” in sin. It is in Christ that we are “found” and our value, our life, is restored and redeemed. We are able to place our life and its value with Christ’s on the cross, thus finding true redemption. Our souls are “purchased with so many trials” and have been “snatched from the teeth of the horrible dragon [Satan]”[xii] Christ, our Victor, purchased our soul with His passion and death on the Cross and snatched us forever from the horrible dragon through His resurrection.
How is man like a sheep? We stray. Like the coin we have the image and likeness of our maker on us but like the sheep we stray. Why? Due to original sin we have concupiscence. Concupiscence is the “insubordination of man’s desires to the dictates of reason...it refers to the spontaneous movement of the sensitive appetites toward whatever the imagination portrays as pleasant and away from whatever it portrays as painful”[xiii] Sheep, not unlike other animals, follow desire over reason and are moved by their senses toward what is pleasant and away from what is painful. How often do humans, give up their humanity and become like animals, in which desire and appetite move them to what is pleasant and away from what is painful? The shepherd left the 99 to find the 1 stray, lost sheep and then carried that sheep on his shoulders. Jesus, the Good Shepherd goes out to find us, the stray, the lost, and carries each of us with all our sins, our burdens upon His shoulder as He carried the cross upon His shoulders. He carries us, as He carried the Cross, all the way to Calvary, all the way to victory, all the way to redemption.
What does God’s call of conversion say about humanity? What makes us (humans) different than a coin or sheep? There is a process of conversion, which is the very cooperation of man with God, humanity with divinity. God saves us but wants us to cooperate with Him, the dignity of man is that we are not a mere sheep or a lifeless coin, but a living creature, which can spiritual grow toward communion with the Father. “The dignity of the human person is rooted in his creation in the image and likeness of God; it is fulfilled in his vocation to divine beatitude. It is essential to a human being freely to direct himself to this fulfillment...
What is the fulfillment of man? What do we look towards for fulfillment? No one will argue that each person should be free to direct themselves to fulfillment. The question is not whether man has the right to direct himself and find fulfillment, the real question is whether or not what he is seeking will truly bring him fulfillment. Many people direct themselves in the wrong direction and can even waste their whole life looking for fulfillment in things that will never bring fulfillment.
...By his deliberate actions, the human person does, or does not, conform to the good promised by God and attested by moral conscience. Human beings make their own contribution to their interior growth; they make their whole sentient and spiritual lives into means of this growth. With the help of grace they grow in virtue, avoid sin, and if they sin they entrust themselves as did the prodigal son to the mercy of our Father in heaven.[xiv] Can a coin or a sheep, grow in virtue, avoid sin and repent? We must remember that as humans we can be easily lost (like a coin), we can easily stray (like a sheep) but we have the dignity of a son, not a slave, that desires union with the Father and with the help of Grace answers the call to come home.
Like the flowers in the garden that St. Teresa spoke of, we are rooted in our image in likeness of God. But our growth depends on whether or not we want to fulfill our vocation to reach toward God. To grow upward we must stay connected to Christ. Christ is our stem that gives us both support and nourishment. Our roots (our value in the image of God) are always there but what happens if we choose not to grow, to stay connected to Christ? If this is the case we fall to the ground and decompose in the soil.
How many people lie forgotten, decomposing in the soil of sin? Is there any hope for those that fall to the ground and as St. Teresa says, “become a dunghill”? Many people do fall because they choose not to conform to the good God promises them, but there is always hope. We can always repent. Psalm 113:7 speaks about those who have fallen and “become a dunghill”. “Who is as the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high; and looketh down on the low things in heaven and earth? Raising up the needy from the earth, and lifting up the poor out of the dunghill: That he may place him with princes, with the princes of his people.”[xv] In looking at this Psalm we see the faithful as “the needy,” those on the vine, that like flowers, reach toward heaven only by the help of God. We see “the poor” as the sinners, like the prodigal son, that have left the Father and are perishing in sin. God in His mercy can lift sinners out of the dunghill. He not only redeems the sinner by restoring their value but gives them a higher place than when they left. Just as the prodigal son was given a high position upon his return home, God will place the repentant sinner “with the princes of his people”. We only have to look at the life of the Saints to see great sinners such as Saint Augustine and Saint Paul who are considered “princes of the Church”.
[i] Gaudium et Spes, 41
[ii] Spiritual Reading
[iii] Pope John Paul II; Dives In Misericordia, 6.3
[iv] Saint Gregory the Great; Homily XXXIV in Evangelia
[v] catholic.org
[vi] The Liturgical Year; Abbot Gueranger, O.S.B.; Book 10, page 451
[vii] Genesis 1:27
[viii] 1 Timothy 2:4
[ix] English translation of The Order of Mass I
[x] newadvent.org
[xi] John 18:9
[xii] Spiritual Reading
[xiii] Father John A. Hardon, S.J.; Modern Catholic Dictionary, page 120
[xiv] CCC 1700
[xv] Officium Divinum, Sunday Vespers – Psalm 112 [113]