Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 19, 1-10
At that time, Jesus 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.”
Seeking to see who Jesus was
1. He wanted to see Jesus. This is what Zacchaeus longed for, he wanted to see Jesus and this led him to find out about him, to search and find a way to meet him, to have an encounter. And this is exactly what’s proposed to you. Don’t be a spectator of your religion, get involved, find out, learn. Because the purpose of your Christian life is to meet Christ and enjoy this encounter with the Lord, which is beautiful. Sometimes I think we’re not very clear about things and we go to Church as if we were going to the cinema. But it’s not so… you go to Church as a protagonist, to express your gratitude to God for what you have lived and to ask him for forgiveness. It implies committing yourself by putting your life in God’s hands and having God in your life.
2. Stature and the crowd. Those are the two difficulties that Zacchaeus has to face. The crowd doesn’t let him get to Jesus, and that’s what happens to you and me, when people around us drain our time and our energy and don’t even allow us the time to go to Mass on Sundays, we don’t even have the time to go see Jesus. There are people who fill our lives and thoughts with things and make us dizzy. But there is also our stature, our limitations. We must recognize that there are things in our personality, in the way we are, that move us farther away from God instead of bringing us closer. Your attitudes, your way of answering, of relating to others might distance you from Jesus, just as Zacchaeus’ short stature. May you never lose the desire to see Jesus.
3. Salvation. Zacchaeus was converted, he changed. It was more than simply taking a selfie with Jesus and uploading it to his Instagram; he didn’t get close to Jesus just to stand out. He changed radically because he was convinced that the Good News is the key to life. Many people have changed through knowing Jesus, the Gospel, the Word of God! They’ve changed their lives in a radical way. Today, look at your life and ask yourself again, “What am I doing to see Jesus?
Never forget that something good is on the way!
God bless you, be with you and protect you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
