How do we show others that they are loved?
There are so many different ways to answer that question, that it likely seems we could go on forever! Perhaps we get the person a card. Maybe saying the words “I love you.” Maybe we do something for them, or we get them a good gift. Perhaps we say something that we know they need to hear. There is a countless array of options.
Yet, when it comes to our God’s love to us, it can sometimes seem rather vague, or a bit abstract. We can get a lot of ideas, perhaps looking at the Cross, maybe we’ve been taught that God loves us in our religion classes- but what does it truly mean? What is all of this talk of God loving us supposed to do for us, or how is it really going to change our lives? That is the question that, perhaps, we should be able to answer today with the help of the readings and the Gospel.
The first reading this morning is taken from the book of Wisdom, and as you can guess, the book gives creedence to it’s name- it is seeking to live rightly and to live well. So, we join up with this passage, and it reminds us of something that forms our understanding of our God in a very real way. What does it say? Before the Lord the whole universe is as a grain from a balance, or a drop o morning dew come down upon the earth. So, what this immediately says is, in the grand scheme of things, in comparison to God, the world is remarkably and incredibly small. Yet, there is something of a surprise in the author’s perspective. Even as insignificant as the universe might be, God still ahs mercy on all. He overlooks people’s sins. He loves all things, and loathes nothing.
In all reality, a lot of this seems very familiar, because we are used to these ideas. Yet, we don’t often remember. We are so incredibly small in the grand scheme of things, and yet, God still remembers us and calls us by name. He forgives our sins, He wills things to our good, and He continues to hold everything into existence by His thought and His presence. It isn’t enough just for things to be here just sort of haphazardly placed, or God didn’t just set the universe into motion, but He is very much invested in the entirety of creation!
In the second reading, we have moved away from Saint Paul’s letters to Timothy, which we were reading for the past few weeks, and we have moved on to Saint Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians. In this one, Paul reminds them: We always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose. It continues to move and remind the Thessalonians how the Lord Jesus should be glorified in them. In continuing, he moves and gives them a positive encouragement- nothing should shake or should move them out- not spirits, not oral statements, not even false letters. So, what Paul is reminding them of here is the need to have faith. Not just faith in some sort of vague or abstract way, but truly unshakable faith that will resist even the worst and most detrimental things that could happen to the disciples, even in their own time.
The Gospel today, taken from the Gospel of Luke, is one that so many of us are likely so familiar with that we could tell the story ourselves. Jesus is going through Jericho and was intending to pass through the town, and we can get this idea that He was doing so rather quickly. So He is walking through and eventually it gets to the point where a large crowd is gathering. We are told about this character Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector, who was seeking to find Jesus. He is a short man, and because of this fact, he works to find a way to see Jesus. H climbs a tree, and eventually Jesus walks through. Jesus, as He is passing that tree, looks up and tells Zacchaeus- “come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.”
So, Zacchaeus does exactly that. He comes down, he takes Jesus to his house, even in the midst of the grumbling crowd around him- who likely knew all of the extortion and the cheating that Zacchaeus had done in his life. Nonetheless, Zacchaeus takes Jesus to His house, and is so moved by Jesus, that he begins to tell just how much he is going to change about his life. He is going to give away half of his possessions. He is going to pay back anything he cheated away four times over. It really is a powerful moment! We know just the gravity of this moment, because Jesus makes a response: “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.”
The Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost. Did you hear that? Does this move your heart at all?
If you notice, there is a constant strand going through the entirety of these readings, and it may be something that seems a bit unexpected, at least on the surface, and it goes back to a very simple question: do you truly believe that God loves and cares for you? Now, don’t get me wrong, there have been so many false notions on what this means, or even shallow interpretations, and that is not what I mean here at all. Do you truly believe that God cares for and watches out for you in every moment of your life?
If we return back to the first reading from the book of Wisdom, we are given a reminder- God has created the entirety of the heavens and the earth. He has created the universe as small and insignificant as it may seem in relation to Him. Yet, in the midst of it all, we are told that God loathes nothing that he has made. The Lord is a lover of souls, and thus, He encourages all to return back- He rebukes offenses little by little, and warns them away from the sins they commit. The fact of what Wisdom is saying is that each and every one of us- by our very existence- proves God’s love in a very real and concrete way. Even in our worst moments, God does not look upon us and despise us, but rather looks upon us with the heart of a Father, hurt by sin yes, but waiting nonetheless for our return to Him, because He still waits in that love.
In this world, it can be so easy to feel lost ourselves- to be one in the crowd, and to simply seem too small and insignificant to be noticed by God. Or, perhaps because of what goes on in life, we feel as if we are lost, or God may simply not be paying attention. Maybe we are having a difficult time at work, perhaps some relationships have gone awry, maybe we are suffering greatly, and no one else truly knows about it. In those moments, it can be difficult, because it may feel as if God has simply left us to our own devices.
We should, ultimately, return back to that story about Zacchaeus, however. It is such a great story, and one that we have likely all known since we were young. How many of us, though, have taken a moment to consider a simple fact: we may in fact be in the place of Zacchaeus ourselves. In Zacchaeus, we notice someone who is noticed in a very particular way by Jesus. Even in the worst parts of what He has to offer- and the ways that He may be struggling, because he is so far gone due to sin, Jesus still calls to Him there! Truly, we see Jesus manifesting the love that God has for Zacchaeus, in calling Him down from that place where Zacchaeus was, and calling him to where He needed to be. Yet, in those moments, notice something fundamental: Zacchaeus trusted in God’s love for Him, and because of that, Zacchaeus changed. He repented. He saw the way God was calling Him to move away from that old life of sin, and move into a new life of grace. Yes, God loved Zacchaeus. Yes, God loves each and every one of us in a way we can’t even begin to fully comprehend. That love, though, shouldn’t go unanswered. If we truly know and see our God coming for us- we should run towards Him, and make that response of love.
Thus, my brothers and sisters, I end with this thought. We know the story of Zacchaeus. We can deduce just how much joy was in his heart that day, when Jesus called to Him, even in the midst of his mess and his difficulty. Yet, in all of that, Zacchaeus responded to God’s love and sought a way to return it himself. His life was changed that day. God truly does give us all sorts of signs of His love- maybe not a card, perhaps not in the gifts that we would give one another. That doesn’t change the fact that He still seeks after you and I with a love beyond all telling.
How is Jesus calling to you today? How is God’s love coming to you to change your life in a totally radical and new way? How is Jesus wanting to enter into your house?
