31st Sunday Ordinary Time

Readings: Wisdom 11:22-12:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:11-2:2,  Luke 19:1-10

The Book of Wisdom is pretty blunt about our human condition: we want God but we often don’t want God enough to seek only God and not seek out only our own pleasure, joy and satisfaction. It is important to pay attention here, because there is nothing totally wrong with pleasure, joy and satisfaction! Jesus does not come to teach us that human life is basically bad! Instead, Jesus comes to tell us that we are loved.

We see this same message repeated in the Gospel. Zacchaeus wants to see Jesus and then wants to follow Jesus. Are we so interested in Jesus Christ that we are willing to be a bit foolish in our following of him? Can we really trust Jesus that much? And are we willing to risk being misunderstood by others and perhaps even being judged harshly by them?

Sometimes, perhaps, we are like the grumblers in the Gospel and doubt that some others really are serving the Lord. Or we have fairly fixed ideas about what makes a person a sinner. Always, Jesus invites us to love every other person and never to judge them. Even when the other person may do something that is clearly wrong and even evil, we never know what is making that person do such an act. Instead, we are invited always to presume the best.

Jesus' invitation to follow His way of living is an invitation to change the way that we live. In order to follow Jesus, we must begin by changing our own vision of what real life is about. We must recognize that real life is about loving others and not about getting our own personal pleasure, joy and happiness.

Let us take a few moments today and look honestly at our own lives. Let us renew our commitment to Jesus and to following what he taught us. Let us rejoice in God’s love and forgiveness and learn how to love and forgive one another. Blessed be God for ever.

                                                                                                             Fr. Terry