Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
I want to begin today’s reflection with the reading from the book of wisdom. In these few verses the pronoun ‘you’ is used fourteen times in addressing God. ‘You’ in this passage is an endearing term. It is very evident that the author composed his words with a deep awareness of God and a very intimate knowledge of God. The passage suggests to me that the author is enamored by God; that the author is deeply and crazy in love with God. This passage almost seems to be a love-poem in which a lover admires the qualities of the partner.
The gospel reading is not every different. It is very difficult to inject some romance into the story of a man short of stature who also happened to be an exploiting tax-collector. But Zacchaeus desire to get a glimpse of Jesus, the effort he made to position himself in a way that Jesus would notice him, his hospitality and finally his total transformation are all intensely powerful gestures. It reminds me of the bride in the Song of Solomon who goes out in frantic search of her lover; and when she finds him she commits herself to him in loving and intimate surrender.
Yes, I want to talk today about religion, faith and prayer in the language of love. After all, that is the one thing that we have in common between us – the capacity to love and be loved; the capacity make commitments and be committed to; the capacity to enter into deep and all consuming intimacy; the capacity to touch the core of another person’s life and be touched by another in our deepest core. Love is a good thing, a powerful thing, a holy thing. Love is everything.
I have many conversations with people about God. Most of these people have some image or understanding of God. People understand obligations, rituals, commandments, judgment, punishment, heaven and hell and often fashion their relationship with God around these concepts. This might surprise you, but the most neglected of the image of God is that of God as LOVE. This does not mean that people think that God is not loving; it means that they fashion their relationship with God primarily around obligations, commandments, and judgment more than around GOD AS LOVE.
Today’s readings offer a corrective to this. I want to read the Zacchaeus as a love story that captures the entire story of the incarnation. Just Zacchaeus waited for Jesus, the world was waiting for Jesus. Just as Jesus came to Zacchaeus, Jesus came to the world. Just as Jesus went into Zacchaeus’ house, Jesus enters human existence. Just as Jesus loved Zacchaeus, Jesus loves every human person, friend or foe. Just as Jesus transformed Zacchaeus’ very purpose of life, Jesus transforms human destiny. If Jesus could love Zacchaeus, Jesus loves every human person. In love - pure, divine, holy and sacred love – Jesus invites every human person into an eternal bond of love. As today’s gospel reading concludes, “The Son of man came to seeks and save what was lost.” He did that on the cross. God’s love is so intense, that it transforms the cross, the greatest symbol of shame, into the most powerful symbol of love.
Today, let us try to wrap our minds around God’s limitless capacity to love beyond measure.
- Fr. Satish Joseph