October 30, 2016: Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

At that time, Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town.
Now a man there named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man, was seeking to see who Jesus was; but he could not see him because of the crowd, for he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way.
When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said,
“Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.”
And he came down quickly and received him with joy. When they all saw this, they began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.”
But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over.”
And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.” (Luke 19:1-10)

Reflection

Zacchaeus was an interesting man with a lot of curiosity – curiosity so great that he was willing to climb a tree to see Jesus and maybe get an idea of what Jesus was all about. Jesus rewards that curiosity by calling to Zacchaeus and asking to stay at his house. Maybe Jesus was curious about who Zacchaeus was too. He wondered if perhaps he had faith like a mustard seed that Jesus could help to grow.
Do we have that strong a desire to know more about Jesus – to really “see” Jesus with eyes of faith?

Action

This week let’s look for Jesus in all the events of our lives- the big events and the small ones. Can we see Jesus in the new person in the neighborhood? Can we see him in the hard times when we are struggling? Maybe we need “to climb a tree” or spend some time in prayer so Jesus can invite himself into our lives each day.