Thirty First Sunday

The story of Zacchaeus

The story of Zacchaeus, so beloved by children, is our Gospel today. The city of Jericho is ideally located as a great commercial centre, and therefore like tax collectors everywhere, Zacchaeus ‘followed the money’. In so doing his heart was corrupted and hardened by greed and extortion. He became isolated, feared, despised and ridiculed. He had cut himself off from God through his covetousness and he ruptured his loving relations with others. He was left to his own devices. Yet like the Prodigal Son, he came to his senses. There was a spark of ingenuity and curiosity, a faint flicker of life and hope in his heart. And so, probably unassisted he climbed the sycamore tree to see Jesus for himself.

It is an extraordinary moment of grace and conversion. Out of the thousands of Jews making their way to the Jewish festival of Passover at which 2-3 million would attend, it is all the more extraordinary that this individual encounter could happen. Jesus picked him out of the crowd. He is probably the least likely person in all of Jericho to be converted, as he is described not just as any tax-collector, but as the chief tax-collector, skimming off the profits from the already ill-gotten gains of his underlings.

Just as Jericho was at a crossroads geographically, Zacchaeus is at a crossroads in his life.

The encounter with Jesus not only restores him to God, but he makes just and generous reparation for his sins and resolves to be charitable and lavish to the poor with his money on an ongoing basis.

For most of us conversion is not just a once-off event in our lives where suddenly ‘we saw the light’ but an ongoing struggle to battle the same sins and faults which we have to repeat to our confessor. Why? Because I suspect, we have not uprooted the source of all our personal sins, which is our pride. We need however to purge it not simply by combating it head on, but by practising in real ways each day preferential love for the Lord Jesus. Zacchaeus’ sin of avarice, or love of money, was supplanted by a higher love, that of love for Christ. When our love grows cold, or lukewarm, it is sadly the opportunity for the old weeds to re-emerge. We need to re-kindle our love through ongoing repentance, and intense prayer in which the Holy Spirit can freely act within us, directing our thoughts, words, actions and particularly our desires, once more to the Lord. It is in attentive, persevering good habits of prayer that we realise that we can re-find the Lord again and again.

Finally, as Zacchaeus’ conversion came about in his decision to ascend a tree in Jericho, we realise that the Lord mounted the Tree of Life in Jerusalem for Zacchaeus’ salvation and ours too.

It is in recognising what the Lord has done, He who had ‘no greater love’ for us, that in deep prayer before Him on the Cross our hearts and lives meet and the moment of encounter can happen for us too.

The effects of this graced personal encounter with the Lord Jesus can endure and bear fruit in our lives by repentance and by our changes in attitude in the exercise of justice towards all.

Thirtieth Sunday

We pray today for the approximately 2000 Irish missionaries around the world today.
If you have heard any good news lately, then you want to spread it around – someone expecting a child for the first time, the birth of a first grandchild, the engagement of someone, the announcement of a wedding date, a successful job interview, the appointment to a permanent job, and so on. Like the story of the Chilean miners recently, the world was gripped by this good news story, a break from the recession, job losses, spiraling debt, corruption in high places which we are so tired of hearing about. The good news distracts us, cheers us and uplifts us.

Good news we hear too can concern love. When someone who is in love – you can see it in their eyes, their face lights up at the mention of the name of the loved one. The attitude of someone in love changes their perspective, their outlook on life, their attitude and their mood. They have found life’s purpose and meaning.

Today is about both of these – Good News and Love. Spreading the knowledge and love of God is the call of mission. Missionaries not only spread the Good News of Jesus, but the joy that this knowledge brings. Jesus is a Person who makes a difference in the life of the missionary and the witness of their love sets others on fire to know what their ‘secret’ is.

Going back to the rescue of the Chilean miners for a moment, we see their rescue, their joy, their tears of gratitude at being delivered form the pit. This is the joy we should feel at the rescue that we have received from the darkness of sin and evil. Christ is our rescuer.

The pity is that so many of us are indifferent to this and that so many more are ignorant of it.

The Gospel teaches us today of the urgency of the message of salvation. Missionaries are reminded that it is God’s work they are carrying out; that God will provide; that lightness of foot is better accomplished by detachment, and more terrain can be covered in a shorter time. A greater impact can be made by these ‘terms of employment’. We must all strive not to be unduly distracted by worry, and anxiety over worldly goods that may harden our hearts and may get in the way of effective preaching of the saving message of the Gospel.

We are called to mission, but we cannot give what we do not have. Do WE believe that Jesus Christ is worth knowing and loving? That it is worth the effort to try to get to know Him better and to love Him and to fall in love with Him? That life is all the more worth living because we are loved by Him? And that message is likewise to be passed on to all people to hear?

Finally while we may never go on the missions ourselves we are called a great mission in life of making Jesus better known and loved among our own aswell.

Twenty Ninth Sunday

It is very hard to describe God’s love and concern for us. It is so much more than we will ever know in human terms. God loves us as much as any parent ever could demonstrate.  The simple fact from today’s parable is that God directs us to ask Him with persistence.

The problem in my experience of prayer is that I often forget to consult God.  I may be slow to getting around to the idea consider that God might even be interested in THIS particular current problem, whatever that may be; or that He might even inspire me and help me towards a resolution of my present worry or concern. I am slow to bring specific things to prayer. The fact is, however, that God is interested in every aspect of my being – Spiritual, Physical, and Intellectual, in my Relationships and in my present Emotional state (summed up in the acronym ‘SPIRE’). Whatever is going on in my life right now, God is interested - and He wants to help but He gives us free will. God has the answer ready and He will answer us – ‘in God’s good time’ if we trust Him enough. And that is surely the point of prayer – that it is all about a confident abiding relationship with Him. Asking for what I want is the first step - and then  with persistnt asking framing my petition in terms of trusting that I will recieve what God may want for me.

Twenty Eighth Sunday

An attitude of gratitude

Twenty Seventh Sunday

A number of years ago I was teaching and from time to time we would come across some ingenuity on the part of the pupils - all teenage adolescent boys up to all kinds of mischief.  One of the legendary stories was the English essay – entitled ‘the greatest risk I ever took’.

Faith involves risk – it goes beyond opinion – or saying ‘I believe that’…

An act of faith can apply to many states in life – I think of couples I know where the woman wanted to get married but he was agonising saying ‘I’m not ready, I’m not sure yet.’ Yet there has to be an act of faith, of probability without absolute certainty in certain decisions in life. He got an ultimatum from his future wife:  –‘it’s a step in faith and trust!’

Faith means ‘I believe in’ - God, His Son, the Holy Spirit, what the Church teaches, that faith is about relationship and also out of that personal relationship there are certain consequences.

Fidelity to one person implies fidelity to no one else. Following one path means turning away from others. There are terms and conditions and lived out effects of my career or my identity. I reject Satan and all his works and all his empty promises..

Faith is something that is a gift received at baptism but must be nourished. Jesus compares it to a mustard seed – not merely in terms of size but more importantly in terms of its potential, its capacity. Like seeds there must be favourable conditions and timeliness for it to sprout and grow into fullness. The family and especially family prayer is the seed-bed for faith to flourish.

WOW is the acronym for the conditions necessary - Water, Oxygen and Warmth.

The Holy Spirit is compared to water and wind and fire – dew or moisture, wind or air, fire from heaven.

We receive the Holy Spirit at Baptism but also in Confirmation – and at Confirmation the boys and girls stand up and publicly profess the faith for themselves. We forget that we are all bearers of the Holy Spirit - who of we ask Him gives us what we need to ‘increase our faith’. We receive a spirit 'not of timidity but of power, love and self control'. Yet we ignore Him.

Today is the Annual Day for life and nowhere more do we need the courage that the Spirit gives in standing up for the dignity of human life – especially at its most vulnerable stages. Our faith has social consequences. The Holy Spirit gives is the courage to stand up for life.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

― Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles"