By Fr Antony Christy, SDB –
3rd November, 2019 – 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Wisdom 11:22 12:2; 2 Thessalonians 1:11-2:2; Luke 19:1-10
Salvation is the theme that dominates the liturgy today. The two days that have preceded help us to get into the theme readily. The first day when we celebrated those who shine as stars having reached the due destination; the second day when we remembered those who have completed their earthly lap and are bound towards the eternal abode; both these made us reflect on our future, as something certain and glorious. That is salvation.
The word salvation, sometimes can be understood in terms of salvaging something that has gone wrong. Though this dimension is definitely present in the Salvation that Jesus wants to offer us, Salvation for a Christian should mean much more, much broader and more holisitic. It is wholeness, fullness, oneness, where nothing is lost, nothing is dissipated, everything is intact, everything is reconciled into One, whole cosmos reconciled in God, in and through one Saviour Jesus Christ. It is not merely an other-worldly phenomenon, but a concrete experience here and now, says the Gospel today through the example of Zacchaeus.
An essential eligibility for this salvation is an Eagerness towards it. This eagerness is present in every person, every being. As St.Paul says in his letter to the Romans, the whole creation longs for it, as in a labour pain (Rom 8:22). It is God’s will that nothing should be lost (Jn 6:39), that everything should be reconciled in Him (Col 1:20). The first reading expresses it in simple terms, that the Lord loves all things that exist and wills that they be united in the Lord. This is the oneness that we long for with the eagerness that is exhibited in the whole creation, and we as sons and daughters of God, have this longing much more. This longing is manifested in Zacchaeus in a gradually intensifying degree… first as a mere curiosity to see Jesus, then as an openness to listen to him and then as a longing to have him under his roof! Our eagerness too has to grow in these degrees… from a willingness to know, through an openness to listen to the Lord, to a longing to belong to Him for ever.
Salvation is not only something that happens at the end of time or at the end of my life… but it is the moment of truth that is occasioned every time the Lord encounters me – through daily events, through persons around, through a challenging situation, a needy person or a moment that demands a choice from me. As both the first and the second readings explain, the Lord strives to make the creation worthy of its original nature, the perfection which the Lord willed them. It is in this framework we understand every intervention of God, especially that in Jesus Christ, the Word made human. Once the Lord encounters me, I can never remain the same! That is why we keep dodging and avoiding the gaze of the Lord. But when it does happen, it is a moment of reckoning. It was so for Zacchaeus, he was encountered by Jesus at the Sychamore… an encounter that transformed him totally, initiated in his life a salvific process. He listened to Jesus’ call, obeyed and came down from the tree, and his life was changed for ever. We are invited to listen to the call of the Saviour, come down from our obstinacy and our life will be changed for ever!
Salvation is not an imaginary state of life…it has to be seen in concrete living. It should be seen in our Enthusiasm for life. We see Zacchaeus enthusiastic about his new life…he is ready to return whatever he has unjustly extorted, not just that, but four times! This is what we call enthusiasm. The word enthusiasm, comes from the root ‘en’ and ‘theos’, which combine to mean, ‘being filled with God’…being enthusiastic in life means to be filled with God every moment of our life. Salvation has to be evidenced in this enthusiasm to live life to the full… not ever compromising with the unjust state of affairs, not giving into selfish considerations of me and mine, but looking at everything from the perspective of God, from the perspective of wholeness that consists of reconciling everything, the whole creation, in God.
We are people of the salvation, as St. Paul says, “God chose you from the beginning for salvation” (2 Thes 2:13); Let us live our life with a never ending eagerness for this wholeness in God, ever prepared to encounter the Lord and be corrected and made perfect by the Lord. Let our enthusiasm in our daily life proclaim to the world that we are people of salvation.
Today, the Lord offers, as he did with Zacchaeus, to be our guest. If we receive the Lord with our whole hearts, TODAY, we will experience the power of God’s salvation.
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He is currently pursuing his doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him