Is Jesus Lord of your Life? Do you imitate Blessed Miguel Pro?

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Year C

This Sunday, we enter into the final week of the liturgical year! Beginning with Advent, we prepare for the birth of Christ, and then during the Christmas season we celebrate that birth. With Lent and Easter, we first prepare for and then celebrate the mystery of the Easter Triduum, the Paschal Mystery, the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of our Lord and Savior. The other weeks of the year are numbered in succession, and we call them Ordinary Time, during which we hear proclaimed Jesus preaching and His miracles, while we also celebrate the beautiful feasts of the Saints. It is the bulk of the year, a time for ongoing growth and conversion. At the very end of that process each year, before we begin the cycle once again, the Church places before us this beautiful and daunting image of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. Jesus is Lord and King of all created reality, King of Heaven and Earth, King of all Humanity, King of the Physical and Spiritual Realms.

Jesus’ Kingship has its roots deep in Salvation History. The people of Israel clamored to God for a king, wanting to be like the other nations, and God gave them first Saul, who turned mad, and then David. Our first reading comes from the moment when David is establishing and consolidating his political and military power, as the tribes descended from Jacob, also known as Israel, submit themselves to him. They anoint him king. This is strange, perhaps for us… we don’t anoint our presidents or governors, and rightly so, for they are not religious, but political leaders. However, the People of Israel accept David as king because God has chosen him, not only because they have chosen him. As they anoint David, they acknowledge and respond to God’s blessing, the blessed oil a symbol of God’s strength and protection and healing. The one who is anointed, in Hebrew, is the Meshiach, the Messiah, and in Greek, the Christos, the Christ. God’s promise to David and David’s anointing indeed foreshadow and prepare the way for another king who would come.

In our second reading, St. Paul lays out for us boldly who Jesus is: not merely a man, not merely a teacher, nor even simply another prophet. Rather, Jesus, standing at the end of the long Davidic line, is more than a man called by God to rule and teach. Listen again to Paul’s mystical words:

He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.
For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers;
all things were created through him and for him.
He is before all things,
and in him all things hold together.
He is the head of the body, the church.
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he himself might be preeminent.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and Son of Man, like us in all things but sin, a man who walked among us and taught and healed, is also Himself God. We sang the Creed today to mark the end of this Year of Faith, as we prepare now to carry the healing truth of the Creed with us out into the world once again, and we proclaimed together that Jesus is, “God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father.” Jesus is King, Messiah, Lord, Jesus is God! This is the very core of our belief and identity as Catholics. Jesus is God, He is King of the Universe, King of all Creation.

Our Gospel, however, reminds us that Jesus’ Kingship is far more than pomp and majesty. Jesus conquered the powers of darkness, the brokenness and lies of sin, precisely by taking all the deceit of the Enemy to the Cross. Jesus reigns and rules and is lifted up especially on the Cross, which is why we keep the crucifix always before our eyes.

One powerful and blunt question is placed before each one of us by this great feast of Christ the King. As we gather here to celebrate and pray, is it the case, is it true, that Jesus is the Lord of our lives? Is Jesus King and Ruler of our daily words, choices, and behavior? Do we allow Jesus to be Lord in our struggles and sorrows and failures and also in success and thanksgiving? Do we acknowledge Jesus as King and pay Him homage in both joy and sorrow? The man who mocked Jesus turned his back on Jesus’ kingship because it wasn’t according to his taste, while the other man asked for mercy and opened the door. If we choose Jesus, we see clearly that it will not make life easy, nor will it eliminate suffering, but it will lead to eternal joy.

In the Church’s wisdom, Saturday, Nov. 23rd is also the feast of a recently beatified saint, Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro, a Jesuit priest who was executed by firing squad on Nov. 23, 1927 in Mexico. In the midst of persecution and government oppression, he chose to study for the priesthood, and once ordained, he freely chose to go back to Mexico, despite the danger. He used great courage, resourcefulness, and ingenuity to escape the police and detectives sent after him as he visited the sick and dying, and celebrated Mass covertly in people’s homes. As they were about to shoot him, he asked for permission to kneel and pray first. The Mexican ruler at the time, President Calles, thought to use the incident as a PR stunt, but it backfired, for the journalists invited to the execution shared the pictures of Fr. Pro’s calm courage and piety with the whole world, bringing discredit and shame on the government that brutally framed and murdered him. Blessed Miguel Pro’s dying words were “Viva Cristo Rey,” that is, “Long live Christ the King.” Jesus was Lord of His life, and Fr. Pro followed Him without counting the cost.

Perhaps this is an extreme and unusual case, but the same invitation comes to us… in difficulty, in struggle, in joy and success, in all moments, will we turn to the Lord, will we call upon His name? Will we imitate Miguel Pro? Will we imitate the good thief who knew of his need for God’s mercy? As we celebrate today with joy Jesus’ Kingship over Heaven and Earth, we ask that this may go deeper than the words on our lips, that we may acknowledge Jesus beyond the walls of this church in our homes, in our schools, in our workplaces, wherever we are. In His infinite power, Jesus is also perfectly humble, and He comes to us now with tender humility, offering us Himself, hidden under the appearance of bread and wine.

+ A. M. D. G. +

Our Patronal Feast of St. Albert the Great - Living Faith and Reason in Light of Eternity

+ J. M. J.+

Homily Outline for the Patronal Feast of St. Albert the Great
(Readings from the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C)

Did you notice all the talk of doom and destruction… the “blazing oven,” and “earthquakes and famine?” We are coming to the end of the liturgical year and next Sunday we go out with a bang, the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. The following Sunday the new liturgical year begins with the 1st Sunday of Advent. Now, during these final waning weeks of the liturgical year, the days are getting shorter and shorter, and the winter is settling in upon us. The Church wants to make use of this vivid annual experience, this natural symbol, to invite us to reflect, first, upon death. In early November, we who are engaged in the daily battle, the Church Militant, we celebrate All Saints’ Day, remembering the Church Glorious, asking the saints to pray for us, and then on All Souls’ Day we remember the Church Suffering, praying for those in the purification of Purgatory. We meditate upon the death of our loved ones, our own death, and the ties that extend beyond death.

As November ends, now, we meditate upon the End of Time and Jesus’ 2nd Coming. Jesus rose from the tomb, He walked among His disciples and Apostles, and then He ascended into Heaven. He has promised that He will come again in glory and power at the end of all created things. He came first, in Bethlehem, in hiddenness, in silence, quietly, leaving each person free to choose faith and belief in Him. When He comes again there will be no doubt, no question, for He will come to judge the living and the dead, and the fire of His love will burn away all falsehood and confusion and doubt.

We live in this gap between the Lord’s First Coming and His Return in Glory. We live in this gap of faith, hope, and love, where we are offered grace and truth from God, but where we must always make the choice to receive it. God never forces Himself, His Love, His Mercy, His Truth, upon us. God doesn’t work like a SWAT team, breaking down the door, and handcuffing us to His Body, the Church! As a priest, I’m not the trooper whose job is to bundle you into the caged back of my squad car! Rather, serving as the Lord’s minister, as an Alter Christus, another Christ, radically configured to Jesus Christ by the undeserved gift of ordination, head and chaste spouse of the Church, I am to serve you, to teach you, to be in your midst speaking and living God’s word. St. Paul speaks of this in our 2nd Reading, describing his desire to be one among them who gives a good example of hard work and virtue.

And so, in God’s Living Word, and through me, a priest of Jesus Christ, the Church is inviting us to reflect upon Christ’s coming at the end of time. This will be glorious, but it will also follow great struggle and suffering. Following Jesus Christ, far from guaranteeing an easy and comfortable life, will necessarily involve us in His Cross. Jesus says, “Take up your cross and follow me. “ Jesus says, “The will seize and persecute you… because of my name.” But He also says, “It will lead you giving testimony.” If we are to navigate the storms of life, whether the ordinary burdens of each day or more surprising burdens, sufferings, or attacks, we must have our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ, and we must be grounded in the truth of things. Jesus is coming again, He will judge and restore all things, but as we await that day, life will be a battle, and it will involve great suffering even as it involves great beauty and deep joy. In the midst of those joys and sorrows, we are invited to give witness, to show by our words and lives that we are followers of Christ. In fact, Jesus assures us that if we will trust in Him, if we will wait upon the Lord, if we will listen for His Voice, then, He will give us the words! As He tells us of the battle, He also tells us of His presence with us:

Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand, for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute…. not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives.

God’s word is not chained, Christ’s grace is not wiped away by difficulty and struggle, not even by sin and failure. If we will keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the defender and perfecter of our faith, He will give us grace and bring us safely to His kingdom. We may suffer, we may die, we may be mocked, we may be ignored or dismissed but if we are faithful to Him, He will be faithful to us!

Today we celebrate our Patronal Feast of St. Albert the Great! St. Albert’s day falls on November 15th, often celebrated for another reason, but the Church allows a parish’s patronal feast to be transferred to the nearest Sunday so it can be more easily celebrated. It is a joy for me to be with you for the first time as we celebrate this feast!

St. Albert was born in what is now Germany around 1205, and after studying at the University of Padua in Italy, he joined the newly founded Dominican Order. He turned his active and agile mind to the study of many different things, and he also became the mentor and teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas. He is renowned above all for the breadth of his learning… he was deeply engaged in philosophy and theology, but also the natural sciences. He made very effective use of the rediscovered philosophical tools of the Ancient Greek Philosopher Aristotle, which, among other things, helped him to make increasingly effective use of empirical observation and the very beginnings of the scientific method.

I hope you can see that when St. Albert was chosen as the patron for this parish, it was very apt! So many of you are engaged, whether as students or professionals or professors, in the work of studying the natural world, in all its beauty and complexity. For at least 200 years there has been a widespread prejudice that an intelligent person must choose either faith or reason, that the two are mutually exclusive. The birth of experimental sciences in the very bosom of the Church implies that this is not the case, and St. Albert is a particularly bright example of a man who loved God with all his heart, mind, and strength, and gave glory to God by applying his mind to understanding the created world. Precisely because we know God created the world in love, as Catholics we are confident that the world is intelligible. This is in fact the baseline axiom or assumption of any scientist… if the world is not intelligible, if it does not contain structure and order, however complex, then there is no point in studying it, and there is nothing that could be learned of its structure and function. As we study God’s creation, whether it is a forest, or a cell, or a molecule or a galaxy, we may very well marvel at the beauty and goodness of these things! Their very structure and order tell us of God’s goodness and beauty, and of His love for us.

We know that when Jesus comes again in glory, He will restore and redeem all things, and that there will be a new heaven and a new earth. What we see and observe and measure now is only a hint of the beauty that we are called to by God. By living and loving and exploring created things in light of eternity, we put them in their truest and fullest perspective, in relation to God, and in relation to eternal life. As we celebrate with great joy our patronal feast, we call upon St. Albert for his prayers and intercession, and we seek to follow his example by placing all our gifts at the service of truth and the service of God. As we prepare to receive the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ, we ask God to fill us with grace, strength, and wisdom, that as we love and explore His creation, we may not forget our Creator!

+ A. M. D. G. +

 

Three Tools for Glory - 33rd Sunday, OT Year C

   + J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

The Word of God served up for us by the Church this Sunday is rather daunting, to say the least! We hear from the Prophet Malachi that:

Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch…

Lest we think it’s just the angry Old Testament, our Lord Jesus speaks to us in a similar vein in the Gospel:

All that you see here-- the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down …. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky….You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name…

What’s going on here! Why all the talk of doom and destruction? We are coming to the end of the liturgical year… next Sunday we go out with a bang, the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.  The following Sunday the new liturgical year begins with the 1st Sunday of Advent. During these final waning weeks of the liturgical year, we are also in that phase of the natural cycle where the days are getting shorter and shorter, and the winter is settling in upon us. The Church wants to make use of this vivid annual experience, this natural symbol, to invite us to reflect, first, upon death. We who are engaged in the daily battle, the Church Militant, we celebrate All Saints’ Day, remembering the Church Glorious, asking the saints to pray for us, and then on All Souls’ Day we remember the Church Suffering, praying for those in the purification of Purgatory. After that we shift from meditating upon death, both the death of our loved ones, and our own personal deaths, and we pray with the great mystery of the Lord’s 2nd Coming at the End of Time.

Jesus rose from the tomb, He walked among His disciples and Apostles, and then He ascended into Heaven. He has promised that He will come again in glory and power at the end of all created things. He came first, in Bethlehem, in hiddenness, in silence, quietly, leaving each person free to choose faith and belief in Him. When He comes again there will be no doubt, no question, for He will come to judge the living and the dead, and the fire of His love will burn away all falsehood and confusion and doubt.

  We live in this gap between the Lord’s First Coming and His Return in Glory. We live in this gap of faith, hope, and love, where we are offered grace and truth from God, but where we must always make the choice to receive it. God never forces Himself, His Love, His Mercy, His Truth, upon us. God doesn’t work like a SWAT team, breaking down the door, and handcuffing us to His Body, the Church! As a priest, I’m not the trooper whose job is to bundle you into the caged back of my squad car! Rather, serving as the Lord’s minister, as an Alter Christus, another Christ, radically configured to Jesus Christ by the undeserved gift of ordination, head and chaste spouse of the Church, I am to serve you, to teach you, to be in your midst speaking and living God’s word. St. Paul speaks of this in our 2nd Reading, describing his desire to be one among them who gives a good example of hard work and virtue.

And so, in God’s Living Word, and through me, a priest of Jesus Christ, the Church is inviting us to reflect upon Christ’s coming at the end of time. This will be glorious, but it will also follow great struggle and suffering. Following Jesus Christ, far from guaranteeing an easy and comfortable life, will necessarily involve us in His Cross. Jesus says, “Take up your cross and follow me. “ Jesus says, “The will seize and persecute you… because of my name.” But He also says, “It will lead you giving testimony.” If we are to navigate the storms of life, whether the ordinary burdens of each day or more surprising burdens, sufferings, or attacks, we must have our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ, and we must be grounded in the truth of things… Jesus is coming again, He will judge and restore all things, but in the interim, as we await that day, life will be a battle and a struggle, and it will involve great suffering even as it involves great beauty and deep joy. In the midst of those joys and sorrows, we are invited to give witness, to show by our words and lives that we are followers of Christ. In fact, Jesus assures us that if we will trust in Him, if we will wait upon the Lord, if we will listen for His Voice, then, He will give us the words! As He tells us of the battle, He also tells us of His presence with us:

Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand, for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute…. not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives.

God’s word is not chained, Christ’s grace is not wiped away by difficulty and struggle, not even by sin and failure. If we will keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the defender and perfecter of our faith, He will give us grace and bring us safely to His kingdom. We may suffer, we may die, we may be mocked, we may be ignored or dismissed but if we are faithful to Him, He will be faithful to us!

OK… so that’s pretty big picture, a bird’s-eye view of our lives. Concretely, practically, how do we fix our eyes on the Lord, how do we open ourselves up to His instruction and guidance and grace? There are many good ways to answer that question, and the Church offers us a rich tradition beyond our full comprehension. Let me, however, propose to you three non-negotiables. If we are to follow Christ as He intends, if we are to avail ourselves of the help He offers we must build our lives on: 1) The Eucharist 2) Regular Confession 3) Daily Prayer! No surprises there… if you’re sitting here in Mass today I’m pretty sure those three are on your radar screen! If you want to rise above the battles you face, if you want to endure unto eternal life, go deeper with one of those, or even all three. Make Sunday Eucharist non-negotiable as the Lord intends… if you can physically get to Mass, you should be here Saturday evening or Sunday every week. The Church requires you to go to confession at least once a year during the Easter Season if you are aware of mortal sin… but the Church encourages and invites you to go to confession regularly, availing yourself of the healing and strength offered there. Every month or two is probably a good goal for most people. I need more help, so I try to get to confession every couple weeks myself. Finally… how much space do you give the Lord in prayer each day? You won’t outdo Him in generosity!

In moments, the same Lord born in Bethlehem, the same Lord who will come in glory, will come down upon this altar and offer us His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. May we prepare our hearts now to receive Him with JOY!

   + A. M. D. G. +

In Heaven's Light

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C

This Sunday we get just a little glimpse a page in Salvation History that isn’t widely familiar, the story of the Maccabees. The 2 Books of Maccabees together tell how the Greek Empire attempted to impose paganism on the people of Israel, and of the resistance led by the family of Mattathias, a Jewish priest. In the background of the passage we hear today is the dramatic moment when Mattathias publicly refused to perform a pagan sacrifice in the city of Modein, thus leading his family and many of the faithful Jews into open rebellion against the Greek tyranny. Mattathias’ son, Judas, gives his name to the whole saga, for Judas’ nickname was “Maccabaeus,” which may have meant “The Hammer.” His stunning military leadership and many victories over the much larger Greek armies certainly bear out the nickname.


The passage we heard, from the 2nd Book of Maccabees, tells of the martyrdom of seven un-named brothers. All seven were savagely tortured and killed in front of their mother for refusing to obey the king’s order to eat pork. Two truths stand out from their statements in the face of terrible torture and death: First of all, this whole family clearly recognizes that we must obey God before man. It is easy enough for us to acknowledge this theoretically, or when we feel that we are already keeping God’s law, but when the chips are down, when God’s law calls us to conversion or to resist the path of the majority, then it becomes very difficult. It tests our faith. And this leads to the second truth… with faith in eternal life, knowing God’s promises to us, we can face any sort of difficulty in light of heaven. The third brother is about to have his tongues, arms, and legs cut off by the torturers, and he says:

It was from Heaven that I received these; for the sake of [God’s] laws I disdain them; from him I hope to receive them again.

Moments later, the fourth brother also points to the same hope:

It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the hope God gives of being raised up by him; but for you, there will be no resurrection to life.

In light of Jesus’ later teaching about amazing depth of God’s mercy, we don’t fully embrace this man’s certainty that his torturers are condemned to hell, but we are absolutely invited to share his great hope in heaven, in being raised up by God.


If we live only in light of this mortal world, we will not live as Jesus invites us to live. If the physical life we see around us is the whole story, the only rational path is that of hedonism, “eat, drink, be merry, for tomorrow we die.” More and more people live this way around us, and each of us is tempted to seek pleasure at all costs. This hedonistic path doesn’t even lead to happiness here in this world. Eternity is built right into our hearts.


If we seek real joy, we must live in the light of heaven, with an eternal perspective, with our eyes and lives fixed on the goal and promise God gives us. This is implied in the final words of our psalm, “I in justice shall behold your face; on waking I shall be content in your presence.” We hope and pray and strive to live in such a way, sustained and lifted up by God’s grace, that we may be able to receive the gift of eternal life. When we pass through the veil of death, we hope to wake and rise to God’s presence in heaven.


St. Paul speaks to this same hope and perspective in our 2nd reading:

…the Lord is faithful; He will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. We are confident of you in the Lord that what we instruct you, you are doing and will continue to do. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the endurance of Christ.

God is faithful to us through every trial, He promises to strengthen and guard us. He longs to direct our hearts to His love and to the very endurance demonstrated by Christ.


When we face tough decisions, may we not forget that Jesus has been there ahead of us. Jesus knew what was coming, and in Gethsemane He prayed, “Lord, may this cup pass from me, but not my will but your will be done.” When Jesus stood before Pilate, He almost certainly could have worked out some compromise by denying His own mission and identity. When we face temptation and struggle, we can sidestep it too, if we deny our baptismal mission and identity. Jesus was scourged, crowned with thorns, mocked and spat upon; He struggled up the hill bearing the Cross He would be nailed to, He died for us. He rose victorious from the grave, overwhelming not only all that suffering, but even death itself. We are promised a share in His victory… but we can reject that gift and turn away. If we forget the promise of heaven, we are very likely to turn away.


In our Gospel, the Sadducees were trying once again to trap Jesus with a spurious question, designed to make a mockery of belief in eternal life. We know what it is like to live in a world where eternal life is often mocked, even more frequently ignored, and sadly, simply unknown to many of our peers. Jesus cuts through the shuffle and goes to the heart of the matter… those who are deemed worthy enter into the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead, they are children of God and will rise, for our God is a God of the living, not the dead.


The Church, then, invites us to embrace the truth of eternal life today. This perspective gives us hope for our loved ones who have died, as we continue to remember them during this month of November. We are not finally cut off from those who have died, whether that is a child lost in miscarriage, a young person who dies tragically, or an elder person who dies at the end of a long battle with sickness. We can help them with our prayers, we can love them in light of heaven.

Keeping our eyes fixed on heaven does mean we disdain or disregard this world, rather it means we can authentically love this world while recognizing that it is not the whole story. In heaven’s light we can persevere through temptation, failure, and sorrow. In heaven’s light we can love in truth, we can give of ourselves without counting the cost. Only in heaven’s light can we authentically love both God and neighbor. Like Jesus we can knife through the shuffle of lies and malice and confusion and ignorance, and live grounded in the truth… we are the beloved adopted sons and daughters of God, and He calls us to eternity. At this Mass, now, He gives us Himself, to strengthen us on this journey.




A beautiful example of Heaven's Light shining through song:

+ A. M. D. G. +

The Little Big Man in the Tree

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C


Perhaps some of you saw the recent film, Gravity, starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. There are many striking and beautiful shots of the earth from space, as the two characters try to survive in their spacesuits. Even from the low orbit where the international space station works, whole continents are visible at a glance. I didn’t see the film in 3D, Fr. Robb and I couldn’t go at that time, but even then there was a sense of vertigo, of being about to fall towards the earth!

Since humans have entered space in the last 50 years, we have been able to see our planet all at once, seemingly adrift in the endless sea of space. As we have looked beyond our solar system, and even beyond our galaxy, we have learned how unfathomably enormous the universe is. Our scientific discoveries have opened up this new perspective, and we have become aware of our littleness.

Surprisingly, though, our littleness was understood by the People of Israel even before the time of Christ! In our first reading, from the Book of Wisdom, composed some 50 years before the Lord was born in a manger, the author says:

Before the LORD the whole universe is as a grain from a balance or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth.

Perhaps you’ve seen the images that seem to show the whole earth in a drop of dew… and yet the author here speaks not just of the earth, but the whole universe! As we have gained a physical knowledge of the immense scale of creation, it seems to me that at times we have allowed this to obscure the yet greater scale of God! However many millions of light years away the other side of the universe may be, it is all held in being by God’s never-failing love, as little drop of water cradled lovingly in His hand. God’s act of creation is ongoing, sustaining, necessary for the existence of all things. The Book of Wisdom continues:

…how could a thing remain, unless you willed it; or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you?

How indeed could any of us remain, or continue in being, were it not for God’s love? In the face of death or sickness, in the face of sin and failure, we become intensely aware of our inadequacy, our contingency. We rely upon help, support, resources, and even being that is not our own! We do not sustain ourselves, we do not bring ourselves into existence… were God to cease to love us for but an instant, we would cease to exist!

And, yet, He does love us, as surprising as that may seem at times. He is truly a “lover of souls,” a God whose love is perfectly faithful and steadfast, who loves us and sustains us in being even as we so often turn away. To use St. Paul’s words to the Thessalonians, God desires that we would become “worthy of his calling,” that the “name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified” in us. “The Lord is good to all and compassionate towards all his works,” in the words of the psalm.

Not only is this true on the level of philosophy and theology, it is true on the level of personal and daily experiences… we do not explain ourselves, or give ourselves being. But what neither the psalmist nor the writer of the Book of Wisdom could imagine was what God was going to do next… He came Himself! The infinite Lord of the Universe, Creator of All, Sustainer of All, He who holds the whole universe in His hands, much less the world or you or me, God came Himself. Our smallness, our pettiness, our resistance to His love doesn’t keep Him from mounting a search and rescue mission for each one of us, and we see this at work in our Gospel.

 Zacchaeus is a wealthy man, a powerful man… no mere tax collector, he is a chief, organizing other Jews like himself against his own people in support of the Roman tyrant. In the eyes of the world, a big man, even to those who hated him. And yet, he’s a little man, certainly in stature, but there also remains a certain holy littleness, and in his zeal to see Jesus, he’s not afraid to climb a tree to see over the crowd! Now I hope it’s not too hard to picture me climbing a tree… but imagine being at a parade and seeing our mayor, or a wealthy local businessman, or Bill Gates, climb a tree to see the Goldenaires going by at a parade! Zacchaeus forgot his wealth, his power, his political stature, this fell by the wayside, in his longing to gaze upon the Lord Jesus’ face.

Thus far, we see human longing for God. What happens next, though, is all the more surprising and paradoxical. Jesus notices the little big man up in the tree, He looks up, sees him, and calls out to him, “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.” Zacchaeus could only climb, gaze, hope to see the Lord… but God-Incarnate looked up to him, looked him in the eyes, called him by name, and went to his home. The Son of Man “has come to seek and to save what was lost.”

God holds us in existence in love, He created us for Himself, and we daily experience the longing for truth, for love, for peace, for joy. All too easily we allow our own weakness, and the challenges we face, to mount up and obscure our vision. But, if like Zacchaeus we will forget ourselves, our pretensions, our problems, and hurry to a vantage point, to the Word of God, to the Sacraments, to prayer, hoping to gaze upon the Lord, we can be confident, that God will close the gap, that He calls us by name, that He desires to dwell not only in our homes, but in us, in our hearts, in our daily words, in our daily deeds.

In this context, the vision of our little planet from space can be helpful… we are small, we are vulnerable, we do not sustain ourselves. However, although we are small, we are not adrift in a faceless and impersonal universe, we are cradled lovingly in the hand of our Maker, and He is always attentive to us, always sustaining us. Can we become attentive to Him? Will we seek Him who has already found us? Will we open our homes to His grace? Will we repent of our sins and generously respond to God’s forgiveness? Zacchaeus gives us the model, as he swallows his pride and scurries up the tree. Jesus is coming to our homes today, to our hands, on our lips… will we receive Him with joy?

+ A. M. D. G. +