Reflection/Homily: Thirty-First
(31st) Sunday in Ordinary Time of the Year C (November 3 2013).
Theme: Radical Conversion and Transformation
on Encountering Christ
Encountering
Jesus simply means giving him the attention he needs in other for us to be
converted to him and be transformed. In our encounter with Jesus, we are only
but recipients of divine favour. It is Jesus who truly works for us to
encounter him. Like the parables of the lost sheep and coin, he is the owner
looking for his own. But there could be a number of things that could prevent
us from encountering Jesus.
Ordinarily
speaking, Zacchaeus though short would have seen Jesus if there were no crowd
surrounding him. His inability to see Jesus was not so much dependent on his
size because it was no fault of his. Instead, it depended more on the surmountable
obstacle the crowd imposed on him. Therefore, he needed to go away from the
crowd in other to see and encounter Jesus.
This
crowd for us could mean a number of things. It could be a relationship, a
sinful habit, an environment, an attitude of the mind, an association with a
sect or group or even an unsound doctrine or belief that could prevent us from
having a clear view of the presence of Christ around us. To encounter Christ
therefore, we have to alienate ourselves from these obstacles by aiming to be higher
as Zacchaeus did. The tree had to augment the height he naturally lacked.
Most
often, the crowd tends to impose certain limitations on us. These limitations
could be in the form of ideologies or simply put the “popular mentality” which includes the vain feeling of self-pride. Zacchaeus
conquered this mentality by humbling himself to climb a tree. Even Jesus had to
work against this mentality which considered it unfit for him to associate
himself with supposed sinners. This merited Zacchaeus the favour or receiving a
divine invitation from Jesus.
Biblical
scholars have advance two interpretations of the encounter Zacchaeus had with
Jesus in his home based on how one understands the words he addressed to Jesus:
“Half of my goods Lord, I give to the poor and if I have cheated anyone, I pay
him back four time as much”. The first interpretation is that Zacchaeus, a
sinner underwent a radical conversion and transformation that enabled him to do
what the rich and devout Jew of Mathew 19:21 could not do (sharing his
possessions with the poor and following Jesus). By implication, an encounter
with God could transform us into better Christians.
The
second interpretation, so much conscious of the expression “if I have cheated …” considers
Zacchaeus perhaps as a truly righteous man whom the crowd identifies as a
sinner because of his profession as a tax collector. But Jesus truly judges who
a man is and not who people thinks he is. Last Sunday, he praised a repentant
tax collector against a proud and arrogant Pharisee. Today, he praises a tax
collector whom he knows to be a good and generous person.
God
truly sees in us unique individuals and not stereotypes. He is more interested
in our positive potentialities than in our negative actualities. He wants the
best in us because He loves us. The first reading (Wis. 11:22-12:2) reminds us of
this fact that the Lord loves all that exist and would not have made anything
if he hated it. Though we are sinners, He knows we can be saints if we
cooperate with His grace. That is why we don’t have to judge people as
stereotypes by condemning them as sinners on account of their profession, race
or religion.
Therefore
beloved brethren, like St. Paul in the second reading (2 Thess. 1:11-2:2), let
us pray that God may make us worthy of His calling as his children. So that
each encounter we have with Him will bring about a radical conversion and
transformation in us and qualify us to be with Him at the second coming. Happy
Sunday for God loves you.
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