Today's Message: 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time C

Wisdom 11:22 - 12:2;  2 Thessalonians 1:11 - 2:2; Luke 19: 1-10

How does God feel about me?  How do I feel about myself?  Do they agree?  I easily get a swelled head and prize my gifts higher than they are worth.  I can easily put myself down.  I can carry this image of myself before God that is based on fear of my sins and do not take into consideration God’s mercy.  My former spiritual director who is now with the Lord would say ‘What is God best at?’ and then he would respond definitively, ‘His mercy’  So often we take an unrealistic view of ourselves which is contradicted  by today’s readings.  I have also heard colleagues say that some people’s sins are so great that they do not deserve God’s mercy.  I wonder why they have a problem with God’s mercy, tenderness and forgiveness that are seen all throughout the pages of Scripture?  Maybe this originates from the fact that all people struggle with forgiving people who have hurt them.  The honest reflection that comes back to me is am I praying for those who hurt me, even hate me?  Am I praying for people who are hurting, abusing, killing others in word or in deed?  Why not?  Do they not need my prayers as I do when I hurt others?

We look at today’s readings to set us on the right track with the Good News Jesus constantly proclaimed that God loves all.

What is God like?  Today’s passage gives a refreshing and detailed description of God’s mercy.  It comes from God’s power, “But You have mercy on all, because You can do all things; and You overlook people’s sins that they may repent.”  What a wonderful sentence; each line today holds a powerful reflection point into how God feels about me; when I’m at my best or at my worst.  God is unlike earthly kings who act out of cruelty or with the threat of death to those who oppose them.  God is not afraid of being conquered or overthrown.  Rather God’s motivation is one of love for every bit of His creation.  “For You love all things that are and loathe nothing You have made…O Lord and lover of souls.”  The author shares how the world would cease to exist if God did not continually sustain it with His care and love.  So what does God do when people, you and me, sin?  He puts “reminders” into our heads and souls of His love so that we can abandon our wickedness and believe in Him and love as He needs us to love.  The author gives God a unique title “lover of souls,"  What a wonderful way to describe our God who is constantly offering the opportunity for sinners to repent, reform their lives and make progress in their love for God and His creatures and creation.  How am I doing?

Paul is sharing with the community at Thessalonica an example for everyone:  that he is praying for them as we should pray for everyone, even those who are difficult.  Paul tells them that God has chosen them.  This is a special calling and they are not to be upset by the second coming of the Lord.  God’s grace is constantly with us  and is there to help us in any difficulty.  God is not to be feared.  Even at the end of our lives.  If we have lived and loved as Jesus showed us, we are on the pathway to everlasting happiness.  The Thessalonian Christians were alarmed since there was a false report that this second coming had arrived and they missed it.  Paul states emphatically that no one knows when that coming will take place.  The goal of every person is to continually live lives of love and be ready for this time of the Lord. 

The story of Zacchaeus is a wonderful story which is filled with so many ‘hidden’ messages that are rich in meditation material.  First of all the name Zacchaeus means ‘clean’.  The Jewish people regarded tax collectors as anything but clean. Their profession was known for graft, dishonesty and crimes against the poor.  But if we read this story carefully, the opposite is true. 

Now Zacchaeus really wanted to see Jesus, Luke doesn’t tell us why.  Yet he was so determined, and he was short, he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see what Jesus looked like.  This must have been quite a sight for this rich man to do such an embarrassing thing, but Zacchaeus didn’t see it in this way.  Another interesting point, is that Jesus saw Zacchaeus first and tells him to come down because Jesus is staying at his house that day.  The people had to be deeply confused.  They knew that because of his occupation he was a sinner and worked for Rome and the Temple and why would Jesus support this ‘bad person’?  But they are wrong.  How often do we make judgments at first encounters and later realize it was ‘we’ who were wrong.  Then we hear a true confession that the people observing certainly didn’t know:  Zacchaeus boldly declares that he gives half of his possessions to the poor and if he has cheated anyone, he repays this four times over.  The people were so set on condemning Zacchaeus because of their own prejudiced opinions they were not open to the truth.  (Special note:  the verbs are in the present tense, not in the future as they are frequently translated)  Throughout the story we are called to reflect on seeing and not seeing.  How often I am sightless by what I assume is right or what I want to be right while I am actually blind.  Those who are accused of being blind actually see the truth.  The last line of the story sets the major theme:  “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.”  Zacchaeus was the recipient…each one of us is invited to receive the same love, mercy and forgiveness. 

Some reflective points:

•     Do I accept or resist the description of God provided in Wisdom?  Why?

•     When has awareness of God’s mercy changed me in a significant way?

•     We are completely known by God.  God knows us intimately and thoroughly and loves us all the time.  Do I believe this?

•     God knows all our struggles and brokenness and limitations better than we do and God loves us and helps us. Am I listening?

•     God knows that our weaknesses are not the whole story because God knows what we are capable of doing.  Do I ask God for help or do I feel I can handle it myself?

•     At our Baptism, God calls each one to holiness, that we are on a  sacred journey of being a saint.  Do I give God access to those hidden parts of my struggle?

•     Are we willing to follow Jesus with our whole lives as Zacchaeus did even if some people don’t understand or mock me for my choices to love as Jesus did? 

Sacred Space 2019 states: 

   “Prayer helps us to strike up a deep relationship with Jesus, and He calls us by name.  Life is never the same again after Jesus enters your house and builds up a friendship that is far more valuable than you could ever ask or imagine.  Today, will you welcome His presence?

   Jesus accepts and praises Zacchaeus’s efforts to repair the damage he has done.  He seems happy enough that he was giving one half of his money to the poor and did not ask him to give it all up.  I ask Jesus to help me believe He accepts my poor efforts, as He proclaims that I too am a child of Abraham.”