Open Your Door to God

Tuesday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time

By Beth DeCristofaro

“‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me.  I will give the victor the right to sit with me on my throne, as I myself first won the victory and sit with my Father on his throne.  “‘Whoever has ears ought to hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” (Revelation 3:20-22)

And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham.  For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.” (Luke 19:10)

Piety

O Lord, I humbly implore that what your Son commanded me to do in memory of him may bring me growth in charity.  Through Christ our Lord, Amen. (from today’s Liturgy, Prayer after Communion)

Study

As we prepare to end the Liturgical Year, and the calendar year, and as Revelation talks of the end times it is as yet hard to visualize real ending.  After all, as the Liturgical Year ends Advent initiates a new one.  2015 will follow 2014.  Revelation speaks in symbols of the end of an age with a new age, the age of the Christ dawning.  In science cosmologists talk about what is outside the boundaries of our known universe.  A cartoon once circulating on the internet proclaimed:  “The End!” of the internet until you clicked away from it.

While Revelation speaks through imagery and allegory and calendars are human constructs, all of us do experience endings.  Loved ones die, plans go awry, dreams are obstructed, health is compromised, freedom is constrained, mountains bleed mud on unsuspecting villages, even our very persons face devastation through rape, trafficking, execution.  Human suffering is both chilling and evil but it is not the end.  God’s love and presence with and for us supersedes it and is immutable.  Our desire (knocking on the door) and transforming ourselves by the grace of God’s forgiveness through doing good in God’s name in order to help overcome evil and build the kingdom will show us in each ending where the new beginning is.  Christ invites us all to His Messianic feast.  May we look for opportunities to share that hope each day.

Action

Zacchaeus, my ancestor in faith, was short in stature although probably very tall in riches and power in Jericho.  Where are my “short–comings?”  Do I take for granted my riches?  I can use my deficiencies as starting points to display God’s glory to the world with good works.  If I devote too much time to my career,  I take time for persons unemployed.  If I am overly concerned with my financial portfolio, I can help those in poverty by lobbying for just government policy.  If I spend too much time on clothes and appearance, volunteer with or advocate for the rights of abused children.  When I find myself too comfortable in my comfort zone, I can climb up out of it with someone in whom I never expected to find the face of Jesus.