Lost

It is lost, totally lost, like the lost coin in Luke 15: 8-10. Disappeared from the face of the earth. I can’t find it; no one can find it. I am sure this has happened to you. And if you are a praying person and full of faith, you pray and pray, but nothing happens. This is not my keys or my phone – this is money. I have been waiting for a deposit for almost 2 months now. I have been patient, in fact, so patient that I waited too long to ask for help. Then I knocked feverishly on the door of the agency, and now I am told to be patient again. It is lost. At the writing of this, I still have no answer except to trust the Lord will help me get my lost money.

So at my prayer meeting last night, I asked for prayers about my lost money, and I was grateful. Yet what most struck me was the Scripture we read, which described the deepest loss. The reading for the upcoming Sunday is from Rom. 9:1-5, when Paul is grieving the loss of his Jewish kinsmen who do not believe Jesus is the Messiah. Paul is feeling deep pain at the loss of his brethren, and feels pain “I have great sorrow and constant anguish in my heart… for the sake of my own people, my kindred” (Rom. 9:2-3 ). The description is very moving and so true. Is this not the deepest loss, those whom we love who have not yet accepted Jesus?

We talked about this loss, how to talk to them, how to lead them, how to pray for them. But the most profound loss is the fear about the salvation of those we love. So far, there is no happy ending for some of us. We have heard stories or we ourselves have experienced that “aha” moment. Yet we wait. It is the waiting, the painful waiting, praying, wondering when our loved ones will have their eyes opened. But the good news is that for some of us, the waiting will be fruitful. Do not despair, for the Lord longs for them more than we do.

Pray with me this modified Divine Mercy prayer:

Eternal Father, I offer you the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, for the atonement of our sins, and those of the lost.

For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on the lost, and on the whole world. Amen.