06/11/2025
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Bro. Luke Gealogo, C.Ss.R.
November 6, 2025 | Memorial of the Redemptorist Martyrs of Spain | Luke 15:1-10
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More than a year had already passed since I got hospitalized due to rheumatic fever. I could barely move then because of the dextrose attached and, moreover, because my joints ache. I had to be assisted regularly by a nurse or by a companion especially when going somewhere or doing something. During those times, I really felt physically weak and helpless. But on a deeper level, I felt lost and hopeless.
During one of those days in the hospital, I had a βheart-to-heartβ talk with my Mama. I honestly told her what I was feeling inside: tired, useless, wanting to give up in my vocation journey. But what Mama replied remains echoing in my memory and heart: βAnak, you may feel like giving up β but we your family and your Formation Community are not giving up on you. If only the disease could be passed or shared, I would do so for you.β
So there I was β a sheep astray and lost from the path, hearing not just my motherβs words anymore, but the voice of the Shepherd calling me back to His arms, bidding me come back and not lose hope.
Brothers and sisters, at the end of the day, we carry the name of Redemptorist not only because we seek to partake in Godβs work of Plentiful Redemption but because we ourselves, no matter how wounded or lost, have experienced first the very Redemption we long to proclaim. The God who has called us is the God who will leave the flock of ninety-nine in the wilderness just to find us and set us back on His shoulders. He, too, is the God who will sweep the whole house and leave no stone unturned until He sees us resting on the palm of His hand.
And in the Person of Jesus our Redeemer, this is the same God who never gave up on the poor, the outcasts, the sinners, those whom society has often considered lost or hopeless cases. This is the God who continues to call me and all of us, despite our pasts and pains and doubts, to carry on the mission of searching for and not giving up on all those deemed deprived, abandoned, and beyond redemption.
More than sheep or coins, many people whom we may personally know or have encountered still feel lost and alone often because the very shepherds and stewards, structures and systems, responsible for their well-being and development have been continuously failing them β or, much worse, oppressing and corrupting them. It is to these very people, lost as they are, that God got βlostβ and went out of His very self to preach the Good News of hope and redemption.
Today, it is among these same people, lost like you and me, that God through Jesus Christ our Redeemer finds our vocation and sends us for mission. Amen.
