By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ
Before the LORD the whole universe is as a grain from a
balance or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth. But you have mercy on all, because you can do
all things; and you overlook people's sins that they may repent. Wisdom 11:22-23
When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said, "Zacchaeus,
come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house." And he came
down quickly and received him with joy. When they all saw this, they
began to grumble, saying, "He has gone to stay at the house of a
sinner." Luke 19:5-7
Piety
Piety is a reflection of
the intensity of our search for the Lord in the now moments of our life. The Sacrament of the Present Moment means that
God is only reached in the "now-ness" of our lives. There is no going back and there is no waiting
for an encounter with the Lord. Piety in
the case of Zacchaeus means climbing a tree. Picture a dignified, wealthy man who is
curious about Jesus because everyone is talking about him. He is too short to see over the heads of the
people that surround Christ looking for some pearl of wisdom that falls from
his lips. The first word Zacchaeus hears
is the invitation to come down because Jesus wants to stay at his house. Piety is what flows from the realization that
Jesus wants to stay with us. Piety is
also our gladness that Jesus is with us.
Study
Jesus has come to save
what was lost. Our study teaches us how
to evangelize. Like Jesus, we need to
enter into the house of another that we want to reach in the name of the Lord. There is no greater way to enter into the life
of another than to share a meal. Christ
gives us the Eucharist of his presence to us by love. Eucharist takes us into the life of Jesus even
as we take Jesus into our lives. We
accept Jesus into our lives when we share our lives with others. Zacchaeus shares not only his house, but he
gives away half of his possessions to the poor
.
Action
Zacchaeus sets a high
standard for us in his willingness to give back to anyone who feels extorted
four times what has been extorted. An
important action if we want to follow the Lord closely is to be forgiving to
those who have hurt us. To forgive
before someone asks forgiveness opens our hearts up to the other and makes us
more like the Lord in his forgiving others.
There is much to be forgiven in all of us and the reaching out early on
in our hurts takes the pain away from us much more quickly than if we were
stewing in our hurts. The Lord is our
reason to forgive and we ourselves are more open to God’s forgiveness if we are
forgiving. I imagine myself climbing the
cross of Christ and looking out on the world through his eyes. Forgiveness is ours when we are the
forgiveness of Christ. We need to offer
up our crosses for the people who need our prayer. Carrying the crosses of our lives in the name
of Christ makes of us his love for the world. There is no greater love than to offer our
lives for the sake of friends. It is
even a greater love when we offer our lives for our enemies. Thus we love even as Christ has loved us. We can arrive at the point in our spiritual
journey when we are feeling great joy in what we suffer because we are one with
the Lord in his suffering through us for the world that needs great signs of
God’s love. Our challenge is to love
others even as Christ has loved us.
No comments:
Post a Comment