Gospel: Luke 19:1-10
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 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.”
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Reflection:
Was it
only Zacchaeus who was seeking an encounter with Jesus? Was Jesus not also
seeking an encounter with Zacchaeus? Yes
Jesus was also seeking an encounter with Zacchaeus! Why? For the reason that
Zacchaeus was a sinner like all of us. And what made it more interesting for
Jesus to seek out Zacchaeus was his desire also to see Jesus.
Before
Jesus arrived at Jericho He already had in mind Zacchaeus He knew that this
chief tax collector was looking for Him and ready to change his sinful ways. With
this factor present the encounter of Jesus and Zacchaeus happened. After their
meeting Jesus subsequently went to the house Zacchaeus to purify his house. As
well as to liberate Zacchaeus of any form of sinfulness and right then and there
his conversion and liberation from any form of sinfulness happened.
How could
we relate this gospel episode with our personal lives? Like Zacchaeus we too
are sinful we may not be thinking yet of walking away from our sinfulness. Yet
Jesus is already knocking at our hearts so that he could also have a personal
encounter with us.
If we say
that we are not ready yet to walk away from our sinfulness because we enjoy
sinning, then when will we be ready? Next month or next year? It may be too
late already, nothing is certain with our life anything can happen the next
seconds or minutes.
Therefore
we must also be like Zacchaeus who responded to the desire of Jesus to meet
him. Let us not delay anymore let us rush to meet Jesus now for tomorrow may be
late already.
Are you
prepared to have a personal encounter with Jesus today? - Marino J. Dasmarinas
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