Jesus….lost and found

By Fr Stephan Alexander, General Manager, CCSJ and AMMR

I shared an experience with parishioners recently about how I lost Jesus and found Him again. Losing and finding Jesus may sound cliche but this was an actual experience.

I often wear a crucifix around my neck. It’s worn inside my shirt, so most people are unaware of it. This crucifix is special. It was a gift from a priest and holds great meaning for me. It reminds me of a turning point in my life and in my journey with Jesus.

One day the ‘corpus’ or body of Jesus on that crucifix fell off the cross. It had been a particularly busy day. I heard a noise but couldn’t identify the sound so was unmoved by it. Hence, I wasn’t immediately aware that I had lost Jesus.

The day had been filled with pastoral visits to the sick, meetings with parishioners and completing administrative tasks. Perhaps, I didn’t recognise Jesus was missing because of how busy I was. Maybe it was because I was feeling pride at how well I had accomplished the tasks of the day.

Later that same day, about six hours after I heard that unfamiliar sound, I reached for the crucifix around my neck and recognised that Jesus was missing. My immediate response was calmness. I acted as if nothing happened, nothing had changed. Then, it hit me. Jesus is gone! Where is He? I must find Him.

I began to feel the impact of losing Jesus and this propelled me into action. It was 8.45 p.m. I began searching everywhere—retracing my steps through the places I’d been that day.

I looked around the church office and the presbytery. I searched inside the church: the sanctuary, under the pews, the sacristy, and outside the church. But no sign of Jesus.

I began to feel lost, as though a part of me was missing. I felt the empty cross around my neck, and it reminded me of how easily I could get caught up in the duties and responsibilities of the day, even while doing “good work”, and forget about what is truly important to my Christian vocation.

A little miracle happened at that very moment. I paused my search as I was drawn into a moment of quiet prayer and reflection. The physical retracing of my day changed into a spiritual review of the day, guided by the Holy Spirit.

I recognised that some of my responses throughout the day had moved me closer to God while others moved me away from God. The movements away from God resided in my uncharitable and judgmental thoughts about others.

I had been prideful and forgotten the words of Jesus, “whatever you did to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40). I had let go of the simple and most important part of my calling: to carry Jesus, not in the form of a cross around my neck but in my heart, mind, and actions.

The empty cross became a powerful reminder of a kind of spiritual emptiness that can happen when we lose touch with who we are in Christ and why we minister to others.

In this moment, God’s Spirit guided me to the church office. My posture had changed. I was poor before Him, on my hands and knees. I recognised that the unfamiliar sound I heard earlier in the day happened the moment Jesus “jumped off” the cross.

Jesus was probably responding to the uncharitable way that engaged the poverty of others while ignoring my own poverty. I was guided to the corner of the room. Having earlier lost sight of Jesus, He was now making Himself visible to me again. It became clear that Jesus makes Himself visible to us in the poor but also in our own poverty, namely, our brokenness, weaknesses and imperfections.

Seeing the poor as separate from us means failing to see ourselves. This is why Pope Francis has invited us to “make the prayer of the poor our own and pray together with them”.

As we commemorate World Day of the Poor this Sunday, let us remember to honour the poor, to stay present in the lives of those who feel forgotten, and to find Jesus daily in ourselves and in our encounters with others.

Jesus isn’t only found in the symbols around our necks, around our homes or our places of worship. He is firstly found within us and in the hearts of those around us, especially the poor, the vulnerable and marginalised in our society. They are us! We are them!

As long as we remember that we will never lose sight of Jesus again. He is always to be found in the quiet, humble places, in the people we serve, and in the least among us. If ever you lose Him, start your search there.

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