I HAVE FOUND THE PIECE WHICH I HAD LOST

A MESSAGE FOR THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF SACRED HEART

In today’s Gospel, our Lord tells the parable of the shepherd who loses one of his hundred sheep and leaves the ninety-nine to go after the one that has wandered off.  It is a powerful image, and is the one we usually recall when we want to impress on ourselves the importance of doing all we can to bring back the sinner to repentance.  So important is this idea, however, that our Lord provides a second example, that of the woman who loses one of her ten pieces of silver.  What does she do when she discovers one of her silver coins is missing?  She lights a candle, and sweeps the house, seeking diligently till she finds it.

This coming Wednesday, coincidentally, we will be celebrating the feast of St. Anthony of Padua, who, as everyone knows, is the patron saint of lost things.  We typically invoke this saint when we lose something—he is always ready to intercede on our behalf and somehow inspires us to look in the right place.  There’s a common prayer that goes “Tony, Tony, look around, something’s lost and must be found!”  I prefer to substitute “Dear St. Anthony” for the “Tony, Tony” part, as it strikes me as a bit more polite, but the idea’s the same, and this great Franciscan saint always seems to pull through for us.

Of course, we need not limit our prayers to finding only material things we’ve misplaced.  Remember today’s Gospel, and the woman who finds her missing silver coin. She calls her friends and her neighbors together, saying ‘Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.’  And then our Lord points out the meaning of the parable: “I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.”  If we placed a tenth of the energy we spent in looking for missing car keys, earrings and cell phones, into going after sinners and helping them find forgiveness, how much more worthwhile it would be, and how much more eager would St. Anthony be to help us!

Here’s a prayer to St. Anthony that’s a tad more formal than the one we mentioned above, and which you would do well to copy out and save for one of those annoying, frustrating, or even tragic times, when something or someone you love goes missing, either physically or spiritually:

Saint Anthony, perfect imitator of Jesus Christ, who received from God the special power of restoring lost things, grant that I may find (mention your petition)which has been lost. At least restore to me peace and tranquility of mind, the loss of which has afflicted me even more than my material loss. To this favor I ask another of you: that I may always remain in possession of the true good that is God. Let me rather lose all things than lose God, my supreme good. Let me never suffer the loss of my greatesttreasure, eternal life with God. Amen.