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OMELIE / Omelie EN

03 nov 2019
03/11/2019 – 31st Sunday in O. T.  Year C

03/11/2019 – 31st Sunday in O. T.  Year C

Reading 1 WIS 11,22 - 12,2 * Psalm 144 * Reading 2 2THES 1,11 - 2,2 * Gospel LK 19,1-10

 

 

Saint Paul is confiding us which desires he expresses in his prayer: he would like for our life of believers to have the glory of Jesus, our Lord, as a result. To us, so taken by the earthly things and worried about health, pleasure and material comforts, might seem odd the fact that you could desire “only” Jesus’glory! He who starts doing so however, can discover that there is no greater and deeper joy, there is no wellbeing and communion more beautiful than the ones that comes right from being focused firmly on bringing Jesus to the men’s hearts! It is in them that He finds His glory, His favourite location, because His life continues to perpetuate when He enters a life: He saves it from the solitude and oppression of the emptiness, He frees it from evil desires, heals it, fills it. I am joyfully uniting my prayer to the apostle's, and I am asking you to do the same!

 Saint Paul is also warning us that someone is using the name of Jesus in order to confuse us and trouble us. Who that might be? They are those who share visions and inspirations in order to generate anxiety and expectations linked to the Lord, as He was going to come to punish and bring ruin. We would like instead to wait for the Lord joyfully, because He comes to free us from our evil and to cover us in His glory!

An example of how beautiful is the coming of Jesus is introduced today by the gospel. While going through Jericho, Jesus is not happy about the crowd that wants to see Him, and – as we would say nowadays – it goes absolutely crazy for His autograph. That crowd in fact does not want to be in need of Him as doctor of the souls, as friend of the sinner, come to heal the hearts from the influence of sin. Instead, He is looking for he who knows he is a sinner. And there he is, hidden among the branches of a tree, right there a sinner who at least would like to see Him: he has climbed up to a spot so unusual because everyone else makes him realise to be completely unworthy to meet Jesus. He does not dare to get closer in any other way. It is Jesus who wants to get closer to him. The sinner obeys Him and quickly climbs down the tree. The great joy he feels is the result of this first encounter in the streets, in the middle of that crowd that judges and despises Jesus, for the very reason why He wanted to meet the very one everyone was rejecting, the one who needs to know about the Father’s love.

With joy in his heart, the sinner accompanies Jesus towards his house. Thanks to the Lord’s love, Zacchaeus becomes able to ignore what everyone else thinks and judges. You do not know, but somehow having welcomed Jesus changes also his way to think of the poor and money. Money and richness receive a new value in his eyes: they are not anymore the rulers of thoughts and heart, they become a tool for his new love for Jesus! The poor and the defrauded can feel themselves loved, loved by God, through that money that is shared and does not destroy the relationships between men, but it starts building new ones.

Having welcomed Jesus has given finally that man the joy to enjoy his city, while before he had to fear contempt. Having welcomed Jesus has rebuilt his identity, the very one out of the meaning of his very name: “pure”! Before the encounter with Jesus this name was perceived as completely out of sync. Every time he heard someone calling his name he was assuming it was in order to make fun of him: the name was contradicting the reality of his life. Now, instead, whenever he is called by name does not have to be ashamed of himself!

Jesus has made a huge difference with His presence! Zacchaeus is now safe: he is not slave either of the money or men's opinions. By welcoming Jesus this man has become free, and the freedom has given him a great joy. He is like the lost sheep that enjoys the same joy as the shepherd who is carrying it home, safe, in the company and communion with the rest of the sheep!

Come Jesus, come also to meet me. I am praying you with the same prayer of the book of Wisdom. I am a sinner, I am aware of your rebukes, but I enjoy your compassion: For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made;… You spare all things, because they are yours, O Lord and lover of souls!

I welcome Jesus, and therefore I will be able to check with Him my whole existence and I will grow in inner freedom, freedom from all judgements men will ever be able to form. With my welcoming Jesus and obedience to Him only, I myself will become a sign, even contradicted, for men who still wait for and hope for a fuller life and a deep joy!