Deacon Tom Anthony

Reading 1 Wis 11:22-12:2

Before the LORD the whole universe is as a grain from a balance
or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth.
But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things;
and you overlook people's sins that they may repent.
For you love all things that are
and loathe nothing that you have made;
for what you hated, you would not have fashioned.
And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it;
or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you?
But you spare all things, because they are yours,
O LORD and lover of souls,
for your imperishable spirit is in all things!
Therefore you rebuke offenders little by little,
warn them and remind them of the sins they are committing,
that they may abandon their wickedness and believe in you, O LORD!

Gospel Lk 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 all 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.”

MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,

God is Love. Because He is pure love, we were created out of that same love and belong completely to Him. We are part of Creation and cannot be separated from it regardless what we say or what we do. Because of our free will, there will be times when we struggle against God by exercising our free will. This will cause much frustration and confusion in our lives as we try to make decisions that we may think are in our best interest while ignoring the advice of God. It is a strange paradox that we would actually think that we know better than Our Father who created us and loves us completely. Yet, this is where we ultimately find ourselves in the world today. Imagine a child trying to make life-changing decisions without consulting with his or her parents first. Mistakes will definitely be made. The parents will chastise the child and hopefully the child will make adjustments based on this loving discipline. We are in the same relationship with God. If only we would take the time to listen to Him so that we too can make the adjustments necessary in our lives.

It must be understood that God will chastise us in order to guide us in the proper direction to experience a joyful life with Him. He will also speak to us through prayer and conversation to enforce these directions. Yet, the choices we make are ultimately up to us. Imagine being on a long journey that takes us down several roads and across many different landscapes. If there was no GPS or road signs to guide us, we would be totally lost. Goad is our GPS. God is the one who sets up the road signs. It is ultimately up to us to read these. Unfortunately, we find ourselves ignoring all of these tools in favor of relying on our own faulted judgment even though it has more often than not gotten us lost in the first place. As a father who loves his son, so God loves us and wants us to make the right decisions taking into account the mistakes and successes of the past.

Our conscious reminds us of the right decisions that we should make. Zacchaeus, even though he was a sinner actively engaged in his sin, knew in his heart that there was a better way. God led him to Jesus and Zacchaeus finally listened. God was calling and he responded. What took place because of this was an alignment in Zaccaeus’ life. Everything fell into place. This alignment can happen to all of us. It is a natural occurrence when we finally surrender to God and listen to Him. He will then be able to help us over the pitfalls and hazards that are present in all long journeys. The road is never completely smooth but the journey is easier when there is someone there to help us. God can be our helper if we only permit Him to be.

Realizing the right way of doing things is always the first step. Putting those decisions into action is always the next. The second act takes faith, courage, and determination. In order to garnish these attributes in order to go forward takes strength and determination. Jesus Christ offers all of this if only we accept it. We will never gain what is needed if we act by ourselves. It is impossible alone but nothing is impossible with Jesus Christ. We just need search for Him. We need to find our tree, climb it, and enjoy the view.

Deacon Tom Anthony