Jesus looked into the heart of Zacchaeus with much love.

 

THIRTY FIRST SUNDAY IN OT  C  2022

 

What was he thinking?

This short-of-stature tax-collector who took advantage of people climbed this sycamore tree.  Zacchaeus wanted to catch sight of Jesus as he was about to pass by.  Something must have been going inside of Zacchaeus.  Perhaps he simply meant to see Jesus without being seen.

Zacchaeus surely didn’t expect Jesus to stop and to look up at him as he was passing by.  But that’s what happened.  In fact, Jesus looked into the heart of Zacchaeus, and Zacchaeus experienced the compassionate love of Jesus at this moment.  Jesus said: “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay in your home.”

It is worth noting in this Gospel account that both Jesus and Zacchaeus sought each other out.  Zacchaeus climbed the sycamore tree to get a better vantage point from which to see Jesus.  In turn, Jesus called forth Zacchaeus by name saying:  “Zacchaeus, come down quickly for today I must stay at your house.”  The joy is palpable between them.

The back story on Zacchaeus:  He was an unloved sinner.  He is not an attractive person.  He worked for the enemy as a Roman tax collector.  He had become a wealthy man, perhaps by overtaxing the poor.  His physical smallness matched the low esteem in which he was held.   Then there was an awareness in Zacchaeus that his lifestyle led to loneliness and greediness.  He was coming to the awareness that there was more to life than getting rich by taking advantage of people. 

At this point, Zacchaeus just wanted to see Jesus.  And so, he climbed the sycamore hoping to catch a glimpse of Jesus who was going to be passing by.

A significant moment of grace in this Gospel account is when Jesus stopped and caught sight of Zacchaeus in the sycamore tree.  Jesus looked into his heart with love and invited him down as Jesus wished to come to his house today.  Zacchaeus, at that moment, experienced himself as loved by the Lord.  This beautiful moment of encounter with the Lord was a conversion in Zacchaeus.  Nothing would ever be the same.

 

 

The story of Zacchaeus is our story as well.  How does the Lord encounter you in your life?  As was the case of Zaccheaus, what would it take for you to realize that you need the Lord?  Like Zacchaeus may we experience ourselves as being loved by the Lord.  Nothing is ever the same.

Notice the sharp contrast between Zacchaeus as he is the recipient of the Lord’s extravagant mercy and unconditional forgiveness. and the crowd of the so-called righteous who grumbled judgmentally at God’s mercy.   In this Gospel account, Jesus desired to save not only the sinner Zacchaeus, but Jesus wanted also to save the people who were so ready to condemn Zacchaeus.  As a sinner’s home became salvation’s house for Zacchaeus, Jesus was directing this message to the religious leaders of his day that God is extravagant in mercy and unconditional in the forgiveness of sins.  Instead of anger and violence and judgment, they are to proclaim to one and all the merciful love of God to people in need.

Who are the lost in the Gospel today?  Is it Zacchaeus who rejoices in the compassion and forgiveness of Jesus or is it the righteous who grumble that Jesus is staying at the house of a sinner?  Jesus is inviting Zacchaeus to experience repentance and to move forward into life and the fullness of life.  The folks who were accompanying Jesus were left grumbling at God’s mercy.

Where do find ourselves in this Gospel account?  Are we aware of our need to encounter the Lord as did Zacchaeus, or are we more focused on our judgments on the worthiness or unworthiness of others?  Are we scandalized by the extravagance in which Jesus reaches out to others?

In the Gospel, Zacchaeus wanted more of life that what his wealth provided him.  He was isolated by his greed and wealth.  He wanted to experience the love he saw in the followers of Jesus.  This awareness of his need for the healing and forgiving love of God provides the fertile soil to experience the extravagance of God’s mercy.

 

As we gather for Eucharist, please God we too have that awareness of our need for God’s healing love.  If you recall last Sunday’s Gospel about another tax collector, his simple prayer:  “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.”  Do we come before the Lord in a spirit of humility? 

I invite you as we pray over this Gospel is to ask yourself the question:  What tree do I need to climb in order to encounter the Lord more deeply in my life?   

In receiving Jesus into his home, Zacchaeus accepted God’s outreach of love.  Zacchaeus was then inspired to share what he had.  Zacchaeus said to the Lord, “Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over.

Zacchaeus not only physically welcomes Jesus into his home but also offers him every aspect of his life.  Are we willing to welcome Jesus into our hearts, and are we willing to commit ourselves to a life of stewardship in our spiritual journey?

The Lord wishes to encounter you as much as the Lord desired to encounter Zacchaeus.  When we open ourselves up to accepting God’s love into our hearts, we like Zacchaeus will experience how our lives change in our desire to serve the needs of one another.

 

Have a Blessed Day.

Lord, be merciful to me , a sinner.

 

Thirtieth Sunday in OT  C  2022

 

Have you thought about what Gospel you would like proclaimed at your funeral liturgy?  What Gospel best describes your spirituality?  I suppose this seems like a strange question.

When the late Benedictine Cardinal Basil Hume learned that he had terminal cancer, he specified that this Gospel of the Pharisee and the Publican was to be the Gospel for his funeral liturgy.  When asked why, the Cardinal explained:  Two short months ago when I learned of my terminal cancer, I was at first tempted to think “If only”…”if only” I could start all over again, I would be a much better monk, a much better abbot, and a much better bishop.  But then on second thought how much better to come before God not to say thank you that I was such a good monk, a good abbot, a good bishop, but rather I simply want to say to the Lord: “O God. Be merciful to me a sinner.”  For If I come empty-handed, then I will be ready to receive God’s gift of his merciful love.  Again, if I simply come before the Lord empty-handed, then I will be ready to receive God’s gift of his merciful love.

Indeed, this beautiful Gospel of the Pharisee and the Publican can make every day of our life a jubilee of mercy.   May we come before the Lord not impressed by our own accomplishments; but rather in a spirit of humility, we are loved and healed and forgiven by the merciful love of Jesus.

The parable reminds us that when we pray, we must remember our need for God in our lives. If we are too full of ourselves, there is too little room for God's grace to work in us.  And so we begin our liturgy with the penitential rite asking for God’s merciful forgiveness, before receiving Communion, we pray: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof; say only the Word and my soul shall be healed.”

The unspoken question in today’s Gospel:  which of the two:  the Pharisee or the publican tax collector are you?  In our personal inventory of the actions of our lives, there is probably a bit of the Pharisee and a bit of the publican in all of us.

The Pharisees were for the most part religious people.  Most of the people held them in high esteem.  We too can point to many accomplishments in our lives.  Many “I” statements:  I succeeded in school; I make good money; I know the right people; I support the Church and charitable causes; I once worked in a soup kitchen.

There is a temptation for some of us who come to Church Sunday after Sunday and wonder why the Church is not more packed with parishioners like the good old days. We are not called to come to Church on Sunday and look down on those who no longer have faith. That would make us exactly like the Pharisee in today’s Gospel from Luke.   Instead, we should be asking the Lord to have mercy on us, to change our lives, to make us fully alive in Him so that others can see the presence of God once more active in our world.

If you listen closely to the Pharisee’s prayer, he really isn’t speaking to God, the evangelist Luke says: “He spoke this prayer to himself.”     Let me be quick to say the problem for the Pharisee was not his piety and religious observance, but his inability to name his dependence on God.

We really have it right as disciples of Jesus when we give and share ourselves so completely that we need to trust only in the merciful love of Jesus. The perfect example of one who has given himself so completely is the Apostle Paul.  In the second Scripture reading, Paul writes:  I am already being poured out like a libation and the time of my departure is at hand.  I have fought the good fight; I have completed the race; I have kept the faith.   Paul is saying that his entire life has been a pouring out, an emptying of himself.

The temptation for us is to think that life in Christ is measured by our successes, our achievements.  Our house may be filled with credentials and trophies.  Life is about me and what I have.  The spiritual problem is that when we are filled with ourselves, there is no room for God.

In contrast, Paul writes from prison and measures his discipleship by what he has given away.  So much so, that he comes to the Lord empty handed and simply trusts in the merciful of Jesus.

Please God we do not consider our plate as already too filled to be available for others.  As long as the Lord keeps on loving us, we are to keep on loving others -- in gratitude for the love we have received.  As with St Paul, may our lives be poured like a libation, and we measure our discipleship of the Lord Jesus not by what we have but by what we have given away.

Going back to the Gospel, the tax collector comes empty handed before the Lord and simply says:  “O God be merciful to me a sinner.”  It is important to know the reputation of tax collector in Jesus’ day.  Tax collectors commonly stole from those they taxed and pocketed the money for themselves.  They accepted bribes as a matter of routine.  In this Gospel account, the significant message is that this tax collector trusted in God’s mercy.

If a tax collector can find mercy before God, who is excluded?   May we never exclude anyone in our parish life from being the generous recipients of the mercy of God.   Instead of the Pharisee, may our model for prayer be the tax collector, we are drawn to trusting in the great mercy of God.  Lord I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, say bet the word and my soul shall be healed.

 

Have a Blessed Day.

 

May the persistence of the widow in today's Gospel be a witness for us of a God who never gives up on us.

 

Twenty Ninth Sunday in OT  C  2022

Today’s Gospel parable tells the account of the widow who because of her persistence was able to get the assistance she needed from the judge.  She is the example of perseverance – she simply won’t be put off and finally the unjust judge gives in. 

There are many ways to pray over this Gospel account.  I would suggest three ways for your prayerful consideration. 

First, I would invite to see the widow in this Gospel as an image of God.   This parable invites us to think about that God never gives us on our faith community.  Like the persistent and resilient widow of the gospel, God never gives up on us.

 Yes, we could be more faithful in our full participation in Sunday Eucharist; yes, we could spend more time in prayer at our Eucharistic Adoration; yes, the families of our parish could be more committed to family prayer; yes, we as a parish could be more mission-minded in serving the needs of the poor.  I think we would all say there is room for improvement in our spiritual journey.  But God, like the widow in the Gospel account, continues to call us back to a life of discipleship.

What is our image of God?  May the persistence of this widow give us an insight into God’s unending love for us.  There is nothing we can do to stop God from loving us.  The perseverance of the widow witnesses to the God of second and third chances who neve gives up on us and invites us to embrace God’s unconditional and unending love.

 

Secondly, the widow in the Gospel account is representative of ourselves in our spiritual journey.

There was a time in my life when I was a marathon runner – 26 miles and 385 yards.  My sister thought this was crazy.  She didn’t like to drive her car for 26 miles.  To train for and to run the 26.2 miles takes some perseverance.  There is a grace to sprint short distances at full speed, but there is grace in the perseverance that is needed to run a marathon.

Our lifelong journey of faith is a spiritual marathon.  In the various seasons of our life, in both the green pastures and the dark valleys, we need to trust always in God’s abiding presence.

A fundamental faith question for all of us is:  In the hard times of life, do we bail out from trusting in God’s unconditional love for us or do we have the gift of perseverance we trust that our God goes with us in all experiences of life?

 

Persistence in prayer is not to be understood as trying to change God’s mind, as if God was unwilling to help us in the first place.   It’s we who need to change… Our prayer needs to be: “Not my will but thy will be done.”  God’s will be our peace.  His death on the cross is his gift of faith and a love that heals and saves us all.

 

Have you called an emergency number in your life?  If ever you called 911, I am sure, it now brings to your mind some traumatic experience.   In any case, I suppose, the emergency number is not the most frequently dialled number on your personal telephone. 

What is the most dialed number in your phone, anyway?  Is it your spouse, child, parent, friend, business partner, or someone you love?  Perhaps, these days, thanks to the mobile phones you might even call the same person more than two, three times a day!  And what does that frequently dialed number say about your own priorities in life? 

Now, here is a more important question:  how would you describe your own acts of calling on God!  Are they emergency calls like a 911call, or are they frequent calls?

God needs to be the most frequently dialed number in our daily lives.  Like the widow in the Gospel account, may we continuously call upon God to accompany in all the challenges and in all the joys of life.

Thirdly, the widow in the Gospel represents our neighbor whom we are called to love and serve.

The widow may have reminded us of people we know:

                    --the single mother determined to get her children a valued education and getting them access to quality health care.  She would persist in coming to government offices, principals of schools, hospitals, and doctors’ office.  She had little concern for what people think of her, how she appears in the general public or whether she is being a nuisance.

Are there groups of people who are the widows of the modern world?

                    --ethnic minorities throughout the world

--women looking for equal opportunities in society.

--poor nations standing for their rights before the world community.

Who are the widows in the life of the Church?

--Are their people who would not be welcome in our parish community?  Are their people who feel like widows relative to our parish community?

And so, we ask ourselves:   In all truth can we join in solidarity with the widows of our society?

Do we recognize that the widow in today’s Gospel has so much to teach us?  

In today’s Gospel, Jesus encourages his disciples to pray always without becoming weary.  Another essential aspect of our prayer life is to see the value of our faith community to support and to inspire our prayer journey.  We see in the first Scripture reading, when Moses grew weary in prayer, the Israelites were losing in the battlefield.  But with the aid of his friends Aaron and Hur, Moses became strengthened again in prayer.

 Perhaps we too need the help of the believing community to support us in our continued prayer life. We are at our very best as the Church of the Holy Spirit if we are brothers and sisters to each other.  You heard the expression it takes a village to raise a child; it takes a Church community for us to grow in our journey of faith.  We are to inspire, to support, to love, and to pray for each other that God’s love will be experienced by everyone in our faith community.

 

Have a blessed day.