31th Sunday in Ordinary Time / C
October 31, 2010
Luke 19, 1-10 (p.891)
Saint Luke tells us in this page of the Gospel meeting between Zacchaeus and Jesus. With a staging full details and a rare originality. To better enter this scene I will attempt a comparison, an update with the limits that performs well on this kind of exercise ... For this
you must imagine that you are a wealthy person with an important position in society. You are also fascinated by movies and your favorite players called Leonardo di Caprio, Nicole Kidman or Matt Damon. Writ of celebrities that everyone has heard of. And now you decide to go to Cannes. You wait on the Croisette passage of your favorite stars, but the crowd presses you, you are not at the top and your dream would be to see if only the face of Leonardo or Nicole ... before they enter the Palais des Festivals. And here you crazy an idea comes to mind: you're in your finest attire and you start to climb a palm tree to be well on not to miss the passage of the stars! Everyone laughs at you, you are taken for a madman and the police will soon come to arrest you, but regardless, your desire is so strong that you forget about human decency. And now Leonardo DiCaprio from the foot of your palm spots you, stops and invites you to join him! What a joy for you! That
proportionately from the situation that we live on his perch Zachee sycamore in Jericho. Jesus was just a star that everyone was talking mainly because of its many miracles. But he also had opponents. Even before Jesus enters Jericho was the news spread among the population and crowd kept growing in the main street to see the much talked about. For some it was an entertainment in the grayness of everyday life, others were simply curious, then, as always, there were fans and opponents. The rich Zacchaeus the chief tax collector, looking to see who Jesus was. His desire was beyond mere curiosity. Form of Luke reveals. It does not say Zachee sought to see Jesus but "who was Jesus'. This little man had approached a mystery behind this Jesus of Nazareth. And to try to get a clearer voila who ridicules the eyes of all by climbing a tree! On ascending the tree falls Zachee makes everyone's eyes, he plays his reputation notable, perhaps hated, but rich and feared in the city. The folly of this chief tax collector will trigger an unforgettable encounter, a meeting that will mark him for life. Whoever wanted to see Jesus is seen by Jesus. Yes, the Lord stops at the foot of the tree and asked him to come down quickly. The Lord shows up at him! We understand when it is Jesus who sought more than Zachee Zachee not looking ... For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost. And the first effect of this encounter with the Lord is great joy that pervades the heart of Zacchaeus. Have at home Jesus of Nazareth is of course much more than meet a movie star or any celebrity. Joy is always the sign of the presence of God, the fruit of the Holy Spirit. The sequel of the story shows us how the basis of this encounter with the Lord Zachee will transform, convert and eventually allow the salvation of God manifest in the Son he loves. The sign that Zachee converts not only the joy that dwells but his generosity, his sense of sharing. It is no longer a rich selfish and sometimes dishonest. It is widely share its property and repair the faults they may have committed in the exercise of his profession. Yes, it's really changing and it is now a new man.
I shall mention to us that teaching this beautiful Gospel passage. If we really want to know the person of Jesus, we must make the experience of the encounter and communion with him as he is alive today as 2000 years ago in the streets of Jericho. If our reason and intelligence have a place in the life of faith, especially by the love that we grow in knowledge of God. And the preferred means we grow in the love of God is indeed personal prayer and the Sacraments, is particular in the Eucharist and the sacrament of forgiveness. Our or our sycamore palm tree has these moments we are that we reserve for the encounter with Jesus in prayer community and personal. It is by our fidelity to the life of prayer that gradually we are transformed under the influence of the Spirit and we become able to overtake us in many areas. Without this life of personal prayer, without that daily spirituality, our faith is likely to atrophy. We remain a religious veneer, but God will become for us an abstract idea or worst an ideology. We will be religious men, faithful to the rites, but we lost contact with the real living God. May the example of Zacchaeus recovery deep in our hearts the desire of God, the desire of the Meet in the fellowship of His love!
0 comments:
Post a Comment