31st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Wisdom 11:22-12:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:11-2:2, Luke 19:1-10
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Today’s readings invite us to reflect on our relationship with God and God’s love and mercy in our lives. We are encouraged to know God more each day and to know God’s presence with us.
The first reading, from the Book of Wisdom, is a reflection on the human condition and on what the author believes about God. God has mercy on all of us. God does not want us to die or to perish in our sins. Rather, God wants to forgive us. It is this realization that God wants to forgive us that can help us acknowledge who we are before God.
The Book of Wisdom is pretty blunt about our human condition: we want God but we often don’t want God enough to seek only God and not seek out only our own pleasure, joy and satisfaction. It is important to pay attention here, because there is nothing totally wrong with pleasure, joy and satisfaction! Jesus does not come to teach us that human life is basically bad! Instead, Jesus comes to tell us that we are loved—and this is also the message of the Book of Wisdom.
We see this same message repeated in the Gospel. Zacchaeus wants to see Jesus and then wants to follow Jesus. This is such a wonderful account in the Gospel. Because Zacchaeus is short, he needs to find a way to get higher. He is humble and simple enough to climb a tree! And Jesus invites himself to dine with Zacchaeus.
Today we can ask if we are as simple and humble as Zacchaeus? Are we so interested in Jesus Christ that we are willing to be a bit foolish in our following of him? Can we really trust Jesus that much? And are we willing to risk being misunderstood by others and perhaps even being judged harshly by them?
Sometimes, perhaps, we are like the grumblers in the Gospel and doubt that some others really are serving the Lord. Or we have fairly fixed ideas about what makes a person a sinner. Always, Jesus invites us to love every other person and never to judge them. Even when the other person may do something that is clearly wrong and even evil, we never know what is making that person do such an act. Instead, we are invited always to presume the best.
Jesus’s invitation to follow His way of living is an invitation to change the way that we live. In order to follow Jesus, we must begin by changing our own vision of what real life is about. We must recognize that real life is about loving others and not about getting our own personal pleasure, joy and happiness. Again, we need to remember that there is nothing totally wrong about pleasure, joy and happiness. On the other hand, if getting our own pleasure, joy and happiness is our goal in life, then we have missed the teachings of our Lord Jesus (abbot Philip).
Let us take a few moments today and look honestly at our own lives. Let us renew our commitment to Jesus and to following what he taught us. Let us rejoice in God’s love and forgiveness and learn how to love and forgive one another.
Peace and all good!
Fr. Valery Burusu
Parochial Administrator