Today Salvation Has Come to This House

The Scripture Readings for the Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time can be found at http://usccb.org/bible/readings/103016.cfm.

I can relate to the character in today's gospel on a couple of levels. I am short in stature and I have been employed by the NYS Tax Department as a Tax Collector for more than 30 years. (I can't really relate to the wealthy part!) So, as a result of being short and being a tax collector, I can relate to Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus, like me, and like most of us, was searching for something more in life than what he had. Metaphorically, Zacchaeus couldn't see God or the message of Jesus because of the crowd in his life.

How often in our lives do we allow the people and things in our lives "crowd" God out? We get involved in working hard to get ahead in our jobs. We work hard to get the better things in life, like a bigger home or a bigger car. We get involved with the day to day routine of our lives with our family and children. We allow these things to block our view of God. We can't see God or Jesus because of the crowd!

Because of the type of person Zacchaeus was (a tax collector for the oppressive Roman government), he was despised and shunned by his own people as were all tax collectors. He became wealthy as a result of receiving a percentage of what he collected in taxes. He, a Jew, was profiting from his own people in order to support the Romans and himself. He turned his back on God and the Jewish community in order to get ahead and to live a comfortable life.

Then he heard about this Jesus teaching about the love and forgiveness of God. Something touched his heart. He wanted to find out more about this Jesus and His message. So he went to get above the crowd to get a better look at Jesus. Jesus, knowing that Zacchaeus was searching for something more than what he had, called out to him. Jesus recognized Zacchaeus' inherent dignity as a human being and his spiritual potential. The Lord did not judge by labels and instead affirms Zacchaeus' dignity in front of the crowd.

In this story, Zacchaeus climbed the tree to see Jesus out of curiosity. People make their initial contact with Jesus and His Church not necessarily for theological reasons. Some are drawn by intriguing aspects of the Church's life. Some are drawn to the Church's history, architecture, music and art. Some are drawn to intriguing aspects of the Church's life. In this time of scandals,some people are curious as to why Catholics do not leave the Church in droves. They are curious about the Catholic instinct that the Church is a realty greater than her individual members. They wonder about our belief that the episcopacy and priesthood are offices from Christ that  are much larger than their individual occupants because the office ennobles the  individual rather than the the individual ennobling the office. A bishop or priest may fail but the episcopacy and priesthood remain Christ's gift to the Church that rises above and survives individual failings.

Let this story of Zacchaeus be a lesson for all of us. First, we can count on God's sight of who we really are: people created in God's image. Every one of us has a value deeper and beyond what others may think of us. Secondly, Jesus can use a person's attraction to any aspect of the Church's life to begin to touch that individual's soul. His first entry into another's life is not through theology and doctrine. Finally, we should never underestimate the power of Christian friendship to be an instrument of Christ's grace to others.

Love for another is shown not only in the heroics of self sacrifice. It also is shown in the courtesy, respect and civility we show them. These too can be highways of Christ's grace to them.

As we receive Holy Communion this week, let us not be so concerned with the crowd, but on getting closer to Christ, and bringing Christ to others in our life.

Be Merciful to me Lord, a Sinner

The readings for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time can be found at http://usccb.org/bible/readings/102316.cfm.

We have in our gospel today a parable that I'm sure we are all familiar with about the prideful Pharisee and the humble tax collector. The Pharisee is bragging about all the great things he does and how wonderful he is in the sight of God. "Thank you, Lord that I'm not like the rest of humanity especially that tax collect collector back there." The Pharisee goes on to brag about all the right things that he does: he fasts twice a week and he pays tithes on his whole income. I can imagine him saying, "Boy, God, aren't I a great guy!! I deserve a pat on the back for being so wonderful!" There is one thing that he lacks that makes him fall short of pleasing God: humility! He's busy telling God how great he is while bringing down and judging the tax collector. He's busy making himself look good at the expense of another person.

Meanwhile, the tax collector realizes he falls short of pleasing God and turns to God to ask for forgiveness: "O God, be merciful to me a sinner." The tax collector realized that he falls short of what he should be doing to please God, and turns to God and asks for forgiveness.

For many of us "Pharisee" is almost synonymous with hypocrisy. But we should remember that there were good Pharisees in Jesus' time. Nichodemus was one of them, for example. The Pharisees were laymen. There were about 6,000 of them and they were in charge of the local synagogues. The Sadducees or priests were in charge of the Jerusalem Temple. But people in Israel couldn't travel to the Temple every Sabbath, so they had the local synagogue where they could gather for what we today call the "Liturgy of the Word." The Pharisees were devoted to the Law of Moses and to making it workable in a changing world. They believed that for the Jewish people to survive, all of life should be somehow distinctively Jewish. As a result they became prideful in how they lived out the law and were judgemental about those who fell short of how they felt the law should be lived. The Pharisees were considered to be holy men, while tax collectors worked for Rome, the occupying power, and were considered to be traitors and sinners.

The contrast in the parable is striking to a Jewish audience. The Pharisee and tax collector pray in the Temple. The tax collector is the one who is truly forgiven, not the Pharisee.

We may ask what is wrong with the Pharisee's prayer?

In it there's no sense of the need for forgiveness, no sense that he needs to grow spiritually closer to God in his life. His prayer was a prayer about all the wonderful things he had done. He comes to the Temple to tell God about all his fidelity to do his religious obligations. Meanwhile the tax collector was humble before God.

What the Pharisee did in his life was good. But, he compared himself not with the holiness of God, which he was called to imitate, but to the tax collector. In the Torah (the Jewish bible) God reminds us over and over, "Be holy because I am holy." The Pharisee was looking around at others, rather than looking within. Instead of striving toward living in the image of God, he compares himself to another human being. We can do that as well when we say, "Thank you, Lord, that I am a faithful Catholic, unlike some other people that I know." "Thank you, Lord, that I don't commit adultery, unlike some people I know." "Thank you, Lord, that I am honest, unlike some people I know."

In other words, we stand before God not in need of more of His grace, not appreciating how far we have yet to go, but reflecting on how much better we are than others. Spiritual maturity, spiritual growth comes when we compare ourselves not with our neighbor but to Christ. We can always find people around us that may not be living as they should. Comparing ourselves to them may make us feel good about who we are and what we think we are doing in order to please God. But, when we look at ourselves in the light of Christ and His readiness to forgive, His obedience to the Father, then we see a different picture. Our conclusion that we are better than another person leads to a spiritual dead-end.

It's important that we strive to imitate Christ and not settle into a spiritual arrogance or spiritual complacency that comes from comparing ourselves only to others.

We need to look at the love of Jesus and realize that we fall short and try once more to show His kind of fidelity, His obedience, and His love in our lives.

When we are finally judged at the end of our lives, we will all be judged not on whether we are better than others but on how much we resemble Jesus Christ.

As we approach Holy Communion this week, let us pray the words of the tax collector, "Be merciful to me a sinner."

Pray Always

Scripture readings for the Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary time can be found at http://usccb.org/bible/readings/101616.cfm

Our readings for today center on the fact that prayer should always be a part of our daily lives and in all situations that we face, whether good or bad. In our first reading from Exodus we see the battle between Amalek and the Chosen People of God. Moses in his wisdom knew that he can trust God to be present to help them in their needs. But like all of us when we are in prayer asking for a particular need that doesn't seem to be going our way, we grow tired and weary of asking for help from God. When we have our hands symbolically raised in prayer to God, we can know that God will be there to help us in our need. It's when we stop praying (or as what Moses did, "let his hands rest"), things don't seem to go our way. We need to remember that God is always present in all our needs and we should never grow weary of turning to Him for help in whatever tough situation we are facing in life. Trust in God's presence and His help is an important part of our faith.

In the reading from St. Luke's Gospel, we hear our Lord teach us about the necessity of praying always, without becoming weary. Faith and prayer in God needs to be an integral part of who we are. In good times and bad times we need to always pray. When things are tough in our lives we need to be consistent in our prayer. Our Lord teaches us that God will always be open to our needs. God will always, "secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night..." Pray always is the message of our Lord. Further, we must always maintain our faith in the fact that God is always present in our lives, both in the good times and the bad times!

As we approach the Lord in Holy Communion for this week, let us be grateful to Him for His presence in our lives and ask him for the things that we desire. Also, give thanks to him for the many blessings we do have in our lives.

The Ten Lepers

The Scripture Readings for the Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time can be found at http://usccb.org/bible/readings/100916.cfm.

The word "leprosy" terrified people in the time of Jesus. It is hard for us to imagine the many thousands of people who suffered from various skin diseases in Judea back then. Even today, the word leprosy strikes as much fear in us as does the word "anthrax" or "cancer".

In our readings for today are two instances of cures of this horrible and dreaded disease.  In our first reading we hear of the gratitude of Naaman the Syrian who expresses his gratitude to the God of Israel. In the Gospel, we have the cure of ten lepers, one of them a Samaritan. The Samaritans and the Jews hated each other with a passion, but evidently this illness united these ten hapless and lonely individuals. It is said that in a flood, animals who are natural enemies of each other will stand side by side on dry ground as the water level rises. Crises makes them allies. The same thing happened with these Jewish people with the Samaritan.

All ten were cured by Jesus. But only one of them, the Samaritan, was cured in his soul because of the gift of healing and his gratitude for it brought him to Jesus to express thanks. He then came to know Jesus not only as a healer but as Savior.

There's a lot of talk these days about rights and entitlements. Maybe because of the wealth and prosperity of the past century, we feel that we have a right to all kinds of things. We all feel that we deserve to be happy or to have a long life! Or to be healthy or to have peace! Are these rights or blessings?

We can easily lose a sense of gratitude for the blessings we have been given. We come to church with our needs and burdens, as we should, but we forget to thank the Lord for the blessings we have received in our life. Do we notice the blessings of God in our everyday lives?

Did we show gratitude to our parents who gave us life, food, shelter, clothing and education, and, maybe, by their love, gave us a sense of self-worth. Do we show gratitude to those friends in our lives for their friendship and support in good times and bad times? Are we grateful for those people who helped us throughout our lives in school or in our jobs or careers? Do we show gratitude to God for our intelligence or for the gift of sight, hearing or health that He blessed us with?

Another thing we should be grateful to God for is for the gift of our Catholic Faith! There are thousands of people entering the Catholic Church each year through the religious educations classes all throughout the United States. What is it about the Catholic Church that is attracting them to it? Do we take our Catholic Faith for granted?

There are converts who are attracted to the beautiful gift of the sacrament of confession where they can receive the gift of God's forgiveness . Others speak of the Real Presence of Jesus Christ, present in the Blessed Sacrament in every Catholic Church. Others see that the Church is universal. They can see that no matter where they go in the world, there is a Catholic Community that shares their gift of faith, ancient and powerful. Others may see that we take human dignity seriously and knows that with God's grace we can live in the image and likeness of God. By God's grace, we can be faithful to our promises, we can speak and live in the truth, we can exercise self-control, and we can respect human life from the first moment of conception to natural death.

When coming to Mass we should bring not only our petitions and concerns to God, but we should bring our gratitude  for the good things the Lord God has given us in our lives. The prayer of gratitude, of thanksgiving, widens our vision to see God in everyday life. One of my favorite saints, St. Theresa of Avila, once wisely said somewhere that the memory of a favor received can bring a soul more readily to God than many sermons on hell. Whatever  else we do at Mass, let us never forget to give thanks to the Lord. It is good even to list blessings in our life because we tend to forget how many they are.

Ultimately, the prayer of thanksgiving doesn't benefit God, it benefits us!