A Word from Fr Jaybee

The lost coin Greetings of peace brothers and sisters... One of the boggling parables of Jesus, is the lost coin. He said in Luke 15: 8 – 9: "Or suppose a woman has ten silvercoins and loses one. Doesn't she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbours together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’” Maybe when we hear the story, we will ask ourselves what’s in a coin? She can easily find another coin as a replacement. In this parable, most of us really wonder why the woman worked so hard just to find a coin, by lighting a lamp, sweeping the whole house and searching so carefully. And after finding the coin, why did she call all her neighbours and ask them to join in her joy. The oldies used to say this quote; ‘In the family (group/ organisation/community), there’s always a black sheep.’ But being a black sheep doesn’t mean that he/she can easily be separated or taken out from his/her place, because that will affect the wholeness of the family. The family is not complete if one of the members is abandoned because other members feel his/her absence. That means, though he/she is a black sheep and has failed to do his/her part; he/she is still very much a part of the family. When we lose something valuable and important, we feel uncomfortable and incomplete. There is something lacking inside us, and we notice that emptiness. The woman in the parable exerted much effort and worked hard to find the coin because it was something very important to her and part of her life. God can not afford to lose humanity because it’s part of his whole creation – the “most special among all his creation.” God strives hard to redeem humanity from the darkness of sin. He sent his beloved son to show his love and concern for his creation. The Son offered himself to death and suffering to show his immense love. The Paraclete does his best to guide humanity back to its origin (God). The Trinitarian God works together to restore the lost humanity to maintain its completeness and universality. God bless us all...