Lost and Found

Dec. 1, 2024

God is always searching for us, and the light of Christ shines even amid the darkness of loneliness and isolation

By Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William E. Lori

Dec. 1, 2024

Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William E. Lori

Ask anyone who works with me. I’m always losing things like umbrellas, keys and cellphones. A misplaced umbrella means I’ll get wet. Lost keys mean I’m locked out. A misplaced cellphone means I’m cut off from civilization — or so they say.

Losing possessions is one thing. Being lost or feeling lost is another. And sometimes the sense of loss runs deep. We may feel we’ve lost our friends or have been forgotten by them. We may even feel we’ve lost God’s friendship or that God has forgotten us.

Sins, weaknesses and spiritual and emotional wounds are part of every life. But when these get the better of us, we may think that God and other people have given up on us. This is, of course, a lie, planted in our hearts by Satan, the father of lies. Yet, the sense of being lost to God and lost to our friends can seem very real. Indeed, one of the traits of contemporary culture is a sense of isolation, of being alone in the world. Many people don’t have a relationship with God, nor do they have close friends. There is an absence of love in their lives. Yet, without love, life makes no sense. When love is lacking, so is hope. And when hope is lacking, it is all the more difficult to deal with those sins, weaknesses and wounds that bedevil us.

Recently, someone said to me, “How I dread this time of year. Daylight is short. The hours of darkness are long. That’s how I feel.” My heart went out to her, and I shared with her a short sentence from the beginning of John’s Gospel: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (1:5).

In the darkness of Advent, the light of God’s love shines all the more brightly if, in the grace of the Holy Spirit, we believe and understand that the Lord has come in search of us. God does not want any of us to be lost. The Father loves us so much that he sent his only begotten Son into the world to find us, to save us, to gather us into the family of the redeemed. To do this, the second person of the Trinity forever assumed our humanity — not just our flesh, but a human mind, heart and will. The Son of God who preached the good news and went about healing, forgiving and raising from the dead experienced hunger, thirst, pain and sorrow. And ultimately, he laid down his life for us on the cross. This is the length to which God went to find us. Moreover, he continues searching for you and me at this very moment.

God does not want any of us to be lost. The Father loves us so much that he sent his only begotten Son into the world to find us, to save us, to gather us into the family of the redeemed.

Let us then prepare our hearts for Christmas, the feast of the Incarnation, the great reason for our hope. We do this by allowing the Lord to find us. Often, when we feel the absence of God’s love, it is because we have hidden ourselves from it. There may be painful realities in our lives that we don’t want to face, so instead we blame, we deflect, we hide, we self-isolate. During these days of Advent, let us allow the Lord to break through these self-imposed barriers that prevent us from receiving God’s love and loving others. This happens when we make an unburdening confession of our sins. Or when we reach out in love to someone else in need. Or have an honest conversation with a trusted friend or spiritual director.

On Christmas Eve, Pope Francis will open the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome to inaugurate a Holy Year, a Jubilee of Hope. The theme of this special year of grace is “Hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Rom 5:5). May the celebration of Christmas and this Jubilee fill your hearts with joy and hope!

Metal bucket at draw-well in European village.

Lost and Found

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