Reflection for the 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time

Divine Dialogue of God with the Soul

When I was small, my brothers would lure me into their frequent after school games of hide-and-go-seek. I hated that game, not because I was afraid of being found too easily, but because I was afraid of NOT being found. I was terrified that night would fall and no one would remember I was out there, and there I would languish for years in my hiding place before they would finally (as Charlie Brown would say) stumble upon the bleached bones of my cadaver. It was a while before I realized that if it got too late, I could just walk out of my hiding place and show up at the dinner table to loud cheering and rejoicing. Why, we might even have cake!

In today’s Gospel reading (Luke 19:1-10) we see Zaccheus climbing a tree to see Jesus who was about to pass beneath him along the road to Jericho. Many commentators write that this crooked tax collector probably climbed the tree because he was afraid to be found among the crowd and be chastised by Jesus for being the sinner he was.  I, though, recalling my childhood fear, suspect that Zaccheus desperately wanted to be found by Jesus, and feared he was too little to have been noticed by Him in the dusty road of his sinfulness.

As I needn’t have worried (my brothers always easily found me within seconds), so Zaccheus needn’t have worried either.  Jesus was, I’m sure, eagerly seeking him. That’s how it is with our beloved Savior. We think we are looking for Him, when in fact He is desperately seeking us. There is no chance our hiding places won’t be discovered by Him; He knows us too well and loves us too deeply ever to allow us to be lost. Even in our sinfulness, as we are searching for the courage to ask Him for forgiveness, Jesus Our loving God is drawing very close to us. He is looking to invite us to supper so He can bring about in us a transforming self-awareness and a receptivity to the Mercy of Him Who died the fearsome death on the cross that we might live a life of intimacy with Him.

I ask myself now, when there are no more games in the dark afternoons, what are my hiding places? Why am I afraid Jesus will miss me?  What trees do I climb in my silly efforts to find Him, instead of running to Him who is running to me in Mercy?

And what keeps me from letting myself be found, and sitting down to dinner with Him as my own small self rejoices?

Why, we might even have cake!

God bless you, dear ones.