Brief synopsis of the readings: We begin in Exodus shortly after the destruction of the Egyptians. Moses reminded them what God did to the Egyptians and if they obey his voice they will be a consecrated nation. In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus looked over the crowds and felt sorry for them as they looked exhausted, like a sheep without a shepherd. He told his disciples that the harvest is great but the laborers are scarce. He then summoned the Twelve and gave them power to heal the sick and expel unclean spirits. He sent them off with instructions not to go to pagan or Samaritan territory but to seek the “lost sheep of the house of Israel.” They were to proclaim that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. They were to “cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”

So exactly who were the lost sheep of the house of Israel? The Gospels give us several examples of Jesus sending out his disciples to preach the good news and we can be forgiven if they all tend to meld together in our minds. Today’s Gospel, however, directs his followers to a fascinating group: the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He specifically tells them to avoid all other groups. Why them?

Well, as often happens, this requires an understanding that goes beyond what we may have been taught, or at least led to understand, as children. In the Exodus event we have an image that a distinct group of people, all direct descendants of Abraham, threw off their yokes and fled into the desert with Moses. That same homogeneous group settled in Jerusalem, were sent into exile in Babylon, returned to Israel, and were the essentially the same group Jesus found himself a part of.

It’s a small group but there are those who believe that not all Jews left Egypt, that some decided to remain in bondage. Perhaps they feared flight into the desert would be worse, or they found life under Pharaoh was tolerable. In any case, if they did, they have since been lost to history. Later on, after the death of King Solomon, the community split into two kingdoms, North and South. Shortly after that the Northern Kingdom was conquered and is also lost to history. If that weren’t enough, the Southern Kingdom was conquered and exiled by the Babylonians. When the Babylonians were themselves conquered, some (but not all) the exiles returned to Jerusalem. We know them as the Babylonian Jews.

And this is before the birth of Jesus. A few decades after this Gospel the Temple was destroyed and Jews have traveled all over the world. I write this just to say that the lost sheep of Israel may be a larger and more diverse group than we ordinarily think. And even though the disciples in the Gospel didn’t travel far by our standards we need to understand that we are the spiritual descendants and we are also called to go to the lost sheep.

So who are our lost sheep? Today mass communication and social media give us access across the miles and the years but we all have those who are lost to us. As I write this I’m certain this touches parents who immediately think of children who have “left the faith” or others in our lives who have disappointed us. When we think of our lost sheep there is certainly a place for reconciliation. Much like the father in the Prodigal Son story there are times when we’ve been able to reach out to those have strayed.

But maybe we can look broader than that. Years ago if a Catholic stopped practicing their faith we called them “fallen away” or “lapsed” Catholics and put the onus on them to come back and ask for reconciliation. And we wondered why more people didn’t do it. In the last few years we’ve been talking about alienated Catholics and that, hopefully, changes the conversation.

Several years ago I was recently assigned to a parish and it was my “duty day.” That meant that if someone called the church and needed something I was the one to take care of it. We got a call from a nursing home that one of their residents asked someone from the church to visit him. When I got there I found a man in his 50s who was dying of end stage liver failure. He told me that when he was in his 20s his wife left him for another man; his aunt told him that since he was divorced he was excommunicated and couldn’t receive Communion. He wanted to know, given his condition, if there was any way he could “get right with God.” It was heartbreaking because his well meaning aunt was mistaken: he hadn’t been excommunicated and there was no reason he couldn’t receive. The good news is that I was able to explain that to him and he received Communion; a few days letter he died peacefully.

I learned something that day: when we think of lost sheep we need to be willing to listen to their stories. Sometimes it calls us to hear experiences of pain, particularly in the last few decades where we’ve learned to our horror about clergy abuse. But it also calls us to truly listen, not rehearsing our answer while the other person is speaking. It also means letting go of our expectations for the road forward. The “lost journey” doesn’t necessarily mean wasted time or useless experiences; any reconciliation changes both people and charts a new journey.

And finally we need to recognize the times when we are the lost sheep. If someone tells me that his journey has been straight, narrow and clear I feel badly for the person. I feel badly because he has just admitted that his faith has not matured since childhood.

When Jesus calls us to go to the lost sheep let us recognize that we may encounter the descendant of someone who stayed in Egypt. Or was part of the Northern Kingdom. Or has been in Babylon. Because no matter what, that lost sheep was never lost to God.