31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Wis 11:22--12:2
Ps 145:1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13, 14
2 Thes 1:11-22
Lk 19:1-10

I once heard some advice for writers on how to make a story more dramatic. "Get your character up in a tree," the advice goes, "and throw rocks at him." The advice isn't meant literally, but rather it's about how a character in jeopardy is always a good source of drama.

Well Saint Luke, author of today's Gospel passage, seems to have taken at least a part of that advice literally. It's the famous tale of Zacchaeus, who was short of stature and so needed a higher perch to see Jesus pass by.

But it's really the grace of God that's creating the drama here—a dramatic act of repentance. Even before Jesus comes on the scene, Zacchaeus is determined to see him. What led this wealthy tax collector—an unpopular figure in the town of Jericho—to be interested in Jesus? And even more, what moved him to a radical divesting of half his possessions, and a promise to over-compensate anyone he may have defrauded? It can only be grace!

And it gives you and me an important reminder. God is at work in the most unlikely of ways, and in people we may least expect to change. Repentance like that was—and is—the mission of Jesus. Let's welcome his invitation to stay with us, in our daily lives.

Scripture:

•For you love all things that are… (Wisdom 11:24)

•Every day will I bless you… (Psalm 145:2)

•We always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every effort of faith, that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him… (2 Thessalonians 1:11)

•So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus… (Luke 19:4)

Reflection:

•Where do you find God?

•How do you do God’s will?

•Do you allow God to work through you?

•What is your prayer, and what do you hold near to your heart?

The Church must offer itself as one of the principal agents whereby the human community is made to stand under the judgment of the enduring values of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: freedom, justice, peace, charity, compassion and reconciliation.