This is one of my favorite gospels. I can relate thinking how Jesus is always passing by in my life. And I wonder what made Zacchaeus go to look for him? He made that first small act of faith He even went against the crowd … as a tax collector - in fact chief tax collector he was despised by the people. So maybe they pushed him out so to speak which is why besides his short height he needed to climb the tree. He needed to rise above crowd to see Jesus. And Jesus does what he does so often - invites Zacchaeus back to be restored! The words of Jesus are so beautiful. They sisal to me too- Today, Salvation has entered your house! Despite all the craziness in the world, in my family , these words are as true fir me as they were for Zacchaeus! I hope I respond like he did and give back to tge Lord. God is so good. 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."
At that time, Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town. For love of Zacchaeus, Jesus changed His plans! How many times has His perfect Plan for my life been deflected because of my selfishness! I'm so glad He's willing to make adjustments! But sometimes the Lord allows our plans to be disturbed. We're suppose to fly out Tuesday to Texas to see Chris' family in Houston and then our son, Fr. Benjamin, in Fort Worth; but Geralyn came down early this morning with a full-blown flu. Our daughter, Rachel appended our trip plans by having us fly from Fort Worth to California to visit with her crew for 5 days, but... Please pray for a quick rebound for my beloved!
I listened Fr. Joseph's homily on this gospel this morning and in quoting someone he said,{paraphrasing} imagine this tree was planted and grown long before Zacchaeus was born so he could climb that tree and see Jesus and find salvation. It stuck me and I asked the Lord to show me what He had planted or was going to plant in my life to see Him more clearly and love Him more purely. Prayer said, I went back to listening to the homily. Then suddenly I heard deep within me- Long before you were born, I planted the Immaculate Conception for you, to see me clearly and love me purely. Oh, of course Jesus!
I read the story of little Zacchaeus is a big hit for young children in Scripture class. They love to paint him up that tree. He teaches me that we need to be a little child like to approach Jesus and not to be afraid of climbing up our own trees. The last few years I have become very fond of St Anthony of Padua holding the child Jesus in his arms. If there is a statue of this in any Church I always seek it out. I began to do this when I started to smell a very rich perfume at a Shrine of his over a period of about two weeks. I guess that this was his was of getting my attention. St Anthony seems to me the most child like of saints, which is beautiful, in this he reminds me of Zacchaeus.
