Overview:

Thursday of the Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time

A Reflection for Thursday of the Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time

‘Rejoice with me because I have found the coin that I lost.’ (Lk 15:8-10)

Find today’s readings here.

Recently, in the midst of doomscrolling, I came across a hopeful tale. A video on ABC news told the story of an Irish man named Patrick who was vacationing in Italy with his family; they were swimming in a shallow river when his wedding ring slipped off his finger and was lost. 

The family enlisted the help of three young Italian men who happened to be by the river. But ultimately the search was unsuccessful, and the family returned to Ireland empty handed after exchanging contact details with the men. While the family had given up hope of ever finding the ring, the young Italian men—who, it turns out, are huge fans of The Lord of the Rings trilogy—channeled their inner hobbits and decided to continue the search. 

Noticing how sad the family was, they decided that looking for the ring “was a moral and ethical thing to do.” A week later the men returned to the same spot in the river to do one last search and, after almost giving up hope themselves, scooped the ring out of the water. They were overjoyed and overwhelmed. One of the men noted that, after they found the ring, they stayed together in silence for 20 minutes. Then the excitement began.

After texting the news to Patrick, the Italian trio insisted on returning the ring in person. A few months later, they showed up at Patrick’s home in Ireland wearing homemade hobbit costumes. A grateful Patrick arranged a tour of Ireland for them and gave them silver bracelets, each engraved with their own name and the name of a hobbit from the trilogy. 

The story is unique, for sure, but there is also something timeless about it, and in a funny way it echoes today’s Gospel. Stories like this one remind us that, in our lives of faith, there is hope in searching, reverence for what is lost, and joy in the community that comes with being found. The man who finds the sheep “calls together his friends and neighbors” to rejoice. The woman who finds her lost coin does the same. Both proclaim, “Rejoice with me.” The result of the proverbial lost sheep being found is not simply that it has been recovered, but that its return has brought people together in support and gladness. It has made the community whole.

Kerry Weber joined the staff of America in October 2009. Her writing and multimedia work have since earned several awards from the Catholic Press Association, and in 2013 she reported from Rwanda as a recipient of Catholic Relief Services' Egan Journalism Fellowship. Kerry is the author of Mercy in the City: How to Feed the Hungry, Give Drink to the Thirsty, Visit the Imprisoned, and Keep Your Day Job (Loyola Press) and Keeping the Faith: Prayers for College Students (Twenty-Third Publications). A graduate of Providence College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, she has previously worked as an editor for Catholic Digest, a local reporter, a diocesan television producer, and as a special-education teacher on the Navajo reservation in Arizona.