Today’s Reflection
Gospel: Matthew 18: 12-14
December  9, 2025 | Tuesday

Today’s Gospel

What do you think of this? If someone has a hundred sheep and one of them strays, won’t he leave the ninety-nine on the hillside, and go to look for the stray one? And I tell you, when he finally finds it, he is more pleased about it, than about the ninety-nine that did not go astray. It is the same with your Father in heaven. Your Father in heaven doesn’t want even one of these little ones to perish.

Today’s Reflection

The first reading and the Gospel reading reveal a God deeply committed to comforting and seeking out His people. This divine restlessness is a powerful testament to God’s unwavering love and His desire for us to find our rest in Him.

In the first reading, we witness a powerful contrast. The Jewish people, exiled in Babylon, faced a bleak future with their homeland in ruins and their spirits broken. Yet, amid this despair, they found hope in the Lord’s comforting words and presence. This is a testament to the profound power of God’s love to restore hope in the most desperate situations. In the Gospel, this comfort is illustrated in the shepherd’s unwavering pursuit of finding the lost sheep. The shepherd’s act of leaving the 99 to find the one lost sheep demonstrates God’s relentless pursuit of each one of us. God is not satisfied until every lost one is brought back into His fold. This pursuit is driven by a divine restlessness—a profound love that cannot rest until it finds us and brings us home.

God’s restlessness is not just a divine

attribute but also a call for our response. Just as God seeks us out, we are invited to find our rest in Him. As Saint Augustine famously puts it: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” This Advent season, we are called to reflect on our own restlessness and seek the true rest that only God can provide. In times of loss and desolation, we must turn to God to find comfort and joy in His unwavering love. May this Advent season be a time of deep reflection, where we recognize God’s relentless love for us and find true rest in His embrace. Let us prepare our hearts to receive the comfort and joy that come from being found by our loving Shepherd, a joy that surpasses all understanding.

/Vulnerasti, 2025