“Human life is in some way a constant returning to our Father’s house. - We return through contrition.”

"We should not simply remain in our own secure world, that of the ninety-nine sheep, who never strayed from the fold, but we should go out, with Christ, in search of the one lost sheep, however far it may have wandered." - Pope Francis

Scripture text: (DN 3:57, 58, 59, 60, 61)
R. (59b) Give glory and eternal praise to him.
“Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord,
praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him.
“Angels of the Lord, bless the Lord,
praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him.
“You heavens, bless the Lord,
praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him.
“All you waters above the heavens, bless the Lord,
praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him.
“All you hosts of the Lord, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him.

I've often heard the saying: "When you think God is farthest away from you, that is the moment when He is closest". I've spent some time thinking about this, trying to make some sense of it, and it speaks to me in many ways. The key is that we "think" God is farthest away from us, when it is us that have walked away from Him. We are the ones that have turned away from him to go off on our own "path" much like the prodigal son did. We know better what we want, what's best for us - the constraint of "God" is keeping us from it.

Little do we know that God is just a few steps away, keeping us in his sight, just a slight distance from us, following and waiting for the right moment to make His presence known. That is what I tell people; someday God will make his presence known to you in such a way, you will absolutely know it's Him - follow Him. I know this, because I've seen it happen too many times. It's happened to me.

So in the end it isn't how far God is away from us, but how close God really is. Nothing is as it seems, because we make it so in our minds. Reality occurs when we remove all those things that cloud our vision so we can see clearly. We are only as far away from God as our mind has taken us. He is the Good Shepherd, and He does leave the 99 to go out and look for the 1 lost sheep.