31st Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C Theme: My Life in the world 3-11-13
1st Reading Wis 11:22-12:1 God’s forbearance an opportunity to repent.
2nd Reading 2nd Thess 1:11-2:2 misunderstandings in Thessalonica are put to rest.
Gospel Lk 19:1-10 Jesus invites himself to Zacchaeus home.
Often we have seen how we behave.
When we are happy we enjoy, when sad we show our sadness. When we are curious we express it curiosity.
We see today one of our feelings of curiosity expressed by the little fellow Zacchaeus.
He climbed the sycamore tree to be able to relieve his curiosity about Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus in turn shows concern to a man who wanted to see him a childish way of having a glimpse of Jesus by climbing on a tree.
We see how the second reading shows that we have to be ready at all time for an eventuality to be ready for our death.
The first reading shows us how we have to be patient with God because he is patient with us.
We have many defects, failures, sins etc which require God’s forgiveness.
Jesus came to bring salvation to the human race.
We are people who have experienced the Love of God.
That is why we attempt to be true to our vocation as Christians.
Going to mass, receiving sacraments, participating in various religious exercises.
Our Christian vocation is invested with responsibility to be a sign.
The signal we give everyday is the signal of a Christian who lives in hope.
We have read and meditated on the readings on the Eucharist every Sunday when we are invited to be God’s people.
Every time we participate in the Meal of the Lord we become shares of his glory.
But it entails on a some responsibility of forgiveness which we have experienced in the life we have had lived.
The first reading today reminds us how God mercifully waits for a very sinful person to return.
Though this person might not belong to the people of God but because the creation is God’s action of his love for the nature.
Here we have to live this wonder of his creation every day.
The second reading is a reminder for each of us to be ready for the end of the world and life. Because our life is not permanent it ends at one or the other instant of the life we have.
We have to be ready all the time.
The Gospel is an self invitation of the master to a man who is eagerly waiting to have a glimpse of the great messiah he has so much heard of.
He is so small he has to climb a sycamore tree to find a glimpse of the master and Jesus surprises him by going to the tree and invites himself to Zacchaeus house.
Though God has created the whole universe and made us it’s protector.
We have become so greedy for the use of the universe we try to use it to it maximum to the point of destroying it.
We have to become aware of it
God gives us many chances to be aware of the damage we cause to nature by its over use. The light, air, water, natural resources.
How do we appreciate the world God has placed at our disposal?
Our greed has multiplied to such extent we do not even know what we are doing.
Some ten years a go our needs were not that complicated as today.
Why are our needs are growing with leaps and bounds????
Today when the book of wisdom is warning us when God showed patience with the Egyptians though they were so bad he saved them from extinction just to give them an opportunity to repent.
God never wants the created being be lost in any case.
His love for us is boundless.
As Zaccaeus became a new person when encountered with love he not only accepted his sinfulness but was willing to undo the wrong he cause with much compunction and repentance.
What is our condition?
Do we realize the need for repentance?
Sorrow in our hearts is hidden so that it can emerge to gain credibility and our life by expressing it openly so it becomes a shining signal to our neighbor.
Who ever it may be Christian as well as non Christian who comes in my contact may see me as a shining star in the dark night.
This world is a place we come only once. We get only one chance. We can either use it profitably or loose our opportunity.
This Sunday like Zacchaeus we can take some stand which might attract Jesus to us.
It is always he who makes the first move to reach out to us if only we want him to reach to us.
This will last permanently like the books we read from the Old Testament which show God’s abiding presence in the lives of his chosen people.
With this hope let us participate in the Eucharist today and experience the presence of a living Jesus.
In union with the divine word,
Fr. Juze Vaz svd
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