Trust

The Gospel story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19 is read with Wisdom 11 on the Sunday cycle Year C (a cycle that rotates the Gospels over a 3 year period) and read with Revelation 3 on the weekday reading.  These readings together demonstrate the mercy of God. Most of us know the story of this short-statured, wealthy tax collector who climbs a sycamore tree to see Jesus.  We are familiar with the self-righteous crowd who grumble that Jesus chooses to have dinner at the house of a sinner, but we are not used to seeing how much we are like Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus makes a startling choice. He runs ahead of the crowd, but instead of simply doing that and then standing in the middle of road where he would eventually cross paths with Our Lord, he climbs a tree.  Zacchaeus feels the calling, the pulling toward something new and better, and strongly desires it, yet he is not ready to get up close to Our Lord.  Well aware of his sins, he does not want to be inspected too closely.  Each of us has had this experience at some time in our lives.  We have all sat in the tree wanting what Our Lord offers, but not feeling forgivable. We have all had moments where we felt so unworthy and so ashamed of ourselves that we did not want to go to Confession out of fear and embarrassment at what the priest might say.  Reflecting on the first reading, “But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things; and you overlook people's sins that they may repent” (Ws 11:23), we realize this is exactly how Jesus approaches Zacchaeus.  Jesus sees his longing and his fear and walks up to the tree and extends an invitation. One might think that Jesus is inviting Himself to dinner, but what He is actually doing is inviting Zacchaeus back into the community that Zacchaeus has lost through his sin. He gives back to Zacchaeus his human dignity and respect, telling both Zacchaeus and the grumblers that Zacchaeus is not only loved, but treasured: “For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made.” (Ws 11:24) Zacchaeus responds to Our Lord’s call with repentance (Lk 19:8) and joy. Like Zacchaeus, Jesus meets us where we are: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost." (Lk 19:10)  Once we have been found, we are invited to journey with Him. Our journey is one of continuing conversion, constantly striving to know Him better and love Him more. One sure sign that we have climbed back up in the tree is a lack of peace in our lives.  The events going on around us and in the news are unsettling and do require a great deal of prayer, but they should not make us live in fear. How do we transform our spiritual lives so that we not small boats being tossed among the…