Jesus Passing By

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time Oct. 31, 2010 (Lk 19:1-10)

He came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town. Now a man there named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man, was seeking to see who Jesus was; but he could not see him because of the crowd, for he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way. When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said to him, "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."

But Zacchaeus stood there and 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."

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."

Looking back on the conversion of Zacchaeus, we come to wonder what it was that Jesus said to cause such a conversion. Jesus didn't talk to Zacchaeus about sin and repentance, but Zacchaeus suddenly talked about repaying four times every amount that he extorted from his fellow Jews. It was out of the blue, so to speak.

What probably touched Zacchaeus' heart was Jesus' invitation. He was moved by the fact that Jesus gave importance to him simply by gracing him with His presence and actually speaking to him. As a public sinner, Zacchaeus was probably shunned by society and perhaps often received a cold treatment. But from Jesus, he received a sincere and warm invitation to talk and to share a meal at his own household. Jesus recognized his existence. From that simple gesture alone, Zacchaeus was moved to conversion.

Jesus is always passing by in our lives. Zacchaeus went out of his way to see Jesus only out of curiousity, because he doesn't know Him well. We, on the other hand, know Jesus and have constantly been reminded that Jesus is kind and infinitely merciful. We know this yet we sometimes fear to come near Him in the sacraments of the Eucharist and of Reconciliation. We hesitate even though He Himself invited us when He said, "Come to me... and I will give you rest (Mt 11:28)." Like Zacchaeus, we must go and meet the Lord where He awaits us - in the sacraments and in a good private prayer life.

Aside from representing us sinners who should welcome Jesus is our homes, Zacchaeus also represents the public sinners who are condemned by society. Most of the time we judge these people - corrupt politicians, prostitutes, criminals and others whose sins are scandalous. We give them sentence as if we were Christ sitting on the throne. We tell them that they are going to hell and that they cannot be saved anymore. Because of that, they tend to stay in the box we put them in. They no longer come to Jesus because we make them believe that they cannot be saved anymore.

God wants all men to be saved (1 Tim 2:4). We go against God's will when we judge other people and condemn them. We should, instead, help them by prayer and admonition to repent and to come back to God. Jesus accepted Zacchaeus; so must we accept other sinners, in the name of Jesus. By doing so, we become instruments of God's forgiveness and salvation.

Jesus seeks to save all who are lost. But He can never save us if we do not want to be saved. Zacchaeus reminds us to come to Jesus with confidence and to let Him enter our hearts. As a community, we must come to Jesus, leaving no one behind. Together, we join Jesus in passing by Jericho and journeying towards the heavenly Jerusalem.

In Synch with God's Will

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time Oct. 17, 2010 (Lk 18:1-8)

Then he told them a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. He said, "There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being. And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, 'Render a just decision for me against my adversary.' For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought, 'While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.'"

The Lord said, "Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

Prayer is our connection to God. We, as mere creatures of the Almighty God are in need of His sustenance and care. Yet, for some reason, sometimes, we don't pray enough, we don't pray from the heart or we just don't pray at all.

We have so many reasons why we don't pray enough. Perhaps one reason is that people don't really know how to pray. There is that wrong conception of prayer as an elaborate recitation of words which follow a strict formula. We get this feel that there is a certain way of praying we should strictly follow. We should get rid of this notion. These "formats" or "formulae" are for children who really don't know what to say next when praying. We, on the other hand, as supposedly mature Catholics, must have already learned that prayer is communication with God, and is thus an open conversation where you can pour your heart out and where God speaks to you in the silence of your heart.

Prayer can be integrated in everything that we do. Remember, God is always with us. So speak to Him as if He were there beside you; because He is there, precisely beside you! While you're beating a deadline for your office or school, talk to Him. You won't feel alone. While you're stuck in traffic and are in a hurry, tell Him, "Lord, let's speed this up a little." When we talk to Him as a friend beside us, we radically change our prayer life. Actually, we transform life into a prayer, into one big conversation with God.

In the Gospel today, we see a judge granting the request of a widow. Here we find an example of persistent prayer. We must not be weary in prayer because it is an expression of our dependence on God. In our First Reading, we are presented with another case of persistence in prayer. As long as Moses raised his rod and outstretched his arms, the Israelite army won. Whenever he put his arms down, their army lost. He had to be assisted so he could keep his arms raised. This, perhaps, may seem superstitious and, perhaps, may also present the idea that God blindly obeys prayers as long as we push the right buttons. But this is not so. This story reminds us that faith must always be expressed in a lively prayer life. It is not enough for me to say that God is with me and I can do this and I believe. Faith must be expressed in prayer. Yes, God knows what I need, but have I asked Him for it? If I believe He is with me and is helping me in everything I do, then shouldn't I let Him in on the goals and the plans? Shouldn't we collaborate with our partner and speak with Him?

As a last point of reflection, I took notice of Jesus' imagery of a judge. When we pray for something, God acts as a judge who sees our real intentions. God decides which of our prayers are worthy to be granted and when they are to be granted. When we pray, God answers only in three possible ways. If our prayer is good, then He grants it. If it is not good for us, He rejects it. But He gives us something which, according to His wisdom, is better for us. Lastly, if our prayer is good but is not yet called for, He will give it at the right time. God's justice is never delayed, even if sometimes, we think it is. God's timing is perfect.

Our prayer is an act of uniting our will with God's perfect will. When we pray, our attitude must be that of surrendering to God's will. Our prayer should be, "God, this is my will. If it is in accord with Yours, let it be. If it is not, please show me Yours and let it be done in my life." Our prayer must be an affirmation that we need God to work in our lives, not a dictation of how we want Him to work. Otherwise, we will despair when we don't get things our way. When we surrender to God's will, we will see Him work in our lives in ways better than we could have imagined!