Children love to play games. Yet the image that may come to our minds when we say that children love to play games could be that of a child having a handphone or a tablet in the hand and playing some kind of computer game.
Or for the older children, it may be at the laptop or desktops playing some kind of serious online games.
But when it comes to children playing games, we may want to go retro and recall the games that we play when we were children.
And those games are usually very interactive. For example, in the game of “catching” there will be laughing and shouting and screaming as the children run around and try to catch each other.
And then there is “hantam-bola”. In those days, there was only the soft rubber ball. I can’t imagine if we used golf balls to play “hantam-bola”. (OUCH!)
And then there is the game of “hide-and-seek”. All the children would go hiding and the seeker, after the countdown, would go looking for them.
It is quite an intriguing game in the sense that those children who were hiding would always want to peek out of their hiding place to see where the seeker was.
Somehow they won’t just be contented with hiding and concealing themselves until the seeker can’t find them.
In other words, those who are hiding will somehow give away their hiding place.
So the seeker will somehow be able to find those who are hiding.
But that is where the fun is. The children can hide but the seeker can find them.
It is not going to be that much fun if the children hide and cannot be found.
Well, the fun of “hide-and-seek” is to hide so as to be found. Strange isn’t it? That’s why it is rather intriguing.
In the gospel, Jesus told two parables about something that went missing, something that was lost.
There was a parable about lost sheep and another one about the lost coin.
It is obvious that the sheep and the coin did not play hide and seek. They were lost, they went missing.
And then there was the puzzling and ridiculous search for what was lost and missing.
The shepherd leaving the 99 behind to look for the missing sheep; and the woman lighting a lamp and sweeping out the house just to find a lost coin.
Yes, puzzling and ridiculous, just to look for that one lost sheep and that one missing coin.
Yet, Jesus is telling us how puzzling and ridiculous God is. It is quite difficult to believe that God will go all out just for one that is missing or lost.
But Jesus told these two puzzling and ridiculous parables in response to the criticisms against Him.
The Pharisees and scribes complained that He welcomed sinners and ate with them.
But the fact is that Jesus came to seek and to find what was lost and missing.
In a way it is like some kind of spiritual hide-and-seek.
The tax collectors and sinners, were hiding from public view because of their sin and yet Jesus came looking for them.
But this hide-and-seek drama was first played out in the Book of Genesis.
After Adam and Eve fell into sin, the Lord God came walking in the garden and they hid themselves.
Then the Lord God called out: Where are you?
Well, Adam and Eve did not go into deeper hiding; they responded to the Lord God.
As for the tax collectors and sinners in the gospel, they too responded to the call of Jesus.
In fact, they were all seeking the company of Jesus to hear what He had to say.
Yet there may be many others who don’t know how to respond to the call of Jesus.
They may be lost in the troubles and difficulties and anxieties of life. Jesus calls out to them but they may not know how to respond or that they may have lost the voice to respond.
Well, exam time is coming (only secondary and P6) and the students are all hyped up and stressed out with the studies.
Not only the students are stressed, their parents, are also stressed out. Students and parents seem to be taking exams. (In Singapore, exam is a family affair!)
Today, we have called the students, to come for this Mass to pray for their exams and we too will pray for them.
Yet there may be other students who are not here. Some may even skip Mass to mug for their revision.
We need to pray for them too, because they have lost the voice to call out to the Lord for help.
But more than just praying for the students for their exams, we the Church have to be the voice for the world to call upon the help of the Lord God.
Last Saturday, Pope Francis called upon the Church for a day of prayer and fasting for peace in the world and especially for Syria.
More than 100 000 people joined the Pope in a prayer vigil at St. Peter’s Square, and the Church throughout the world also heeded the call of the Pope.
The Pope is leading the Church to be the voice for the world to call upon God for His saving help.
Let us join our voices in prayer to cry out to God for His help, be it for the students preparing for exams or for peace in the world.
Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. Our voices in prayer will tell Him where we are and that we desperately need Him to find us and save us.