This Sunday\u2019s gospel, taken from Luke 19:1-10, tells of the conversion of Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector who met Jesus when he was passing through Jericho. He was a wealthy man, but was still searching for something or someone to fulfill him. In encountering Our Lord, he received him joyfully and was willing to surrender his past life of wealth due to what he found in Christ. Zacchaeus surrendered and gave up his material possessions without letting any fear of the future hold him back. How could meeting Jesus have brought about such a drastic conversion in a man?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To gaze upon the face of a Saviour who chose to come to this world out of love: this is something that in a way we can only imagine through faith. Our Lord is described by our first reading as the \u201clover of souls\u201d (Wisdom 11:26), and so when we imagine Zacchaeus\u2019 first encounter with Jesus in this light, it becomes a bit clearer how Zacchaeus could have abandoned his old life out of trust and love, for in Jesus\u2019 face can be found a Truth and Love strong enough to be totally outpoured for humanity. Jesus brought Zacchaeus out of the search which hadn\u2019t been fulfilled in anything else. Jesus rejoiced in Zacchaeus\u2019 coming to the salvation of realizing and entering into the divine love and mission of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though this story seems unrelatable in a way, for we will not see Jesus as clearly as Zacchaeus could, we must trust that he is among us, though veiled. In the Eucharist, Christ is present and waiting for us to turn to him and away from the struggle to find fulfillment in what this world can provide us. Though he is veiled for a time, he is there with arms open beckoning us towards the fullness of love in union with him. He is always offering, but it takes us going out of the way of our daily lives and gazing upon him as Zacchaeus did. In his grace, may we learn little by little to put aside worry of the things of this world and instead rest in the joy that is offered to us by Christ, who takes away our sins and orders our lives even as we surrender them to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marc Berube<\/strong> \u2013 St. Joseph Seminary, Edmonton, Alberta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-strona-glowna-najnowsze","category-strona-glowna-slider"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n