HE COUNTS THEM ALL

 

HE COUNTS THEM ALL

I was privileged to get to know a family whose matriarch was widowed young. She had to raise her brood of nine as a single mother. She did this by running a sari-sari store. Every night, before praying and going to bed, she would dutifully count her gross income and separate the running capital from her meager real earnings.

She loved what she did. Every day. And she counted each and every single day—not the money in itself, but what the money was for ultimately: the children she loved. Not one of her children was left behind. All of them became professionals, each one becoming the responsible and loving parent that their mother had been all her difficult life.

The Gospel today tells us how real and concrete God’s love is for us. Read: you, me, and yes, even your enemy. He counts them. Five sparrows are worth only two centavos, though it is not the centavos He is really counting, but the sparrows. It is not the hairs he is counting, but the sacred heads of everyone He has created out of love. In love, there is no fear. That much, God assures us in Christ. “Do not fear! You matter more than many sparrows.”

At my age, I am losing more than just hair. I lose everything except what I want to lose—unwanted pounds! God knows I have lost many opportunities— time that I could have used to help make this dreary, hateful world a better, more loving place. Why, I have even lost “friends” for standing up for the right. I have loved. I have lost. And God knows, there are times, I am tempted to even lose that little love I thought I had—for God, for His cause, for everything and everyone He cares for.

I am convinced today, more than ever, that “it is better to have loved and lost, than not to have loved at all.” As formator and teacher for the longest time, I was counting on my proteges. I eventually “lost” many of them. But God never loses whom He counts. And we never lose when we love. Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

---------- REFLECTION QUESTIONS ----------

Have you felt how important you are to God? How did it change the way you look at yourself, at your life?

Thank You, Lord God, for not allowing me to be lost. Amen.
Today, I pray for: ________________________