YEAR II: HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF 33RD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME.
THEME: Today Salvation comes to the house of Zacchaeus.
BY: Fr. Diotacious Chikontwe SMA.
*READINGS OF THE DAY*
Apocalypse 3:1-6,14-22
Psalm 14:2-5
Luke 19:1-10
*LITURGICAL COLOUR*
GREEN
*FROM OUR FIRST READING*
In our first reading from the Book of Revelation today, the risen Jesus addresses the church in Laodicea as rich, in terms of the goods of this world. Yet, in reality, he says, the church is ‘pitiably poor’.
*FROM THE GOSPEL READING*
This church we have heard in our first reading, could be seen as a mirror image of Zacchaeus in the gospel reading. As a senior tax collector, he is a wealthy man, and, yet, in a deeper sense he is pitiably poor. Yet, whereas the church in Laodicea needed to be told it was pitiably poor, Zacchaeus was aware of his own spiritual poverty, his own restlessness. It was this awareness which led him to take the unconventional step of climbing a sycamore tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus who was passing by.
RELATED: YEAR II: HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF 33RD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME.
*CONCLUSION*
Saint Augustine said that our hearts are restless until they rest in God. This inner restlessness, if we allow ourselves to feel it, can lead us to seek out the Lord, as it did Zacchaeus. When we seek out the Lord, we invariably discover that the Lord is seeking us more than we are seeking him. Zacchaeus just wanted to catch a glimpse of Jesus. However, when Jesus saw Zacchaeus, he showed that he wanted a much deeper communion with Zacchaeus, ‘I must stay at your house today’. We are reminded again of the words of the risen Lord to the church in Laodicea in the first reading, ‘I am standing at the door, knocking. If one of you hears me calling and opens the door, I will come in and share their meal, side by side with them’. As Jesus says to Zacchaeus, ‘the Son of Man came to seek out and save the lost’. The Lord is always seeking us out in his love. If we allow ourselves to be found by the Lord, he will empower us to follow him more generously and joyfully, just as he empowered Zacchaeus to live more fully as a son of Abraham.
May God bless us all through Christ our Lord.