ALLOWING GOD TO FIND ME
Wisdom 11:22-12:2; 2 Thessalonians 1:11-2:2; Luke 19:1-10
John Powell writes about Tommy, a student in his theology of faith class at Chicago’s Loyola University. Tommy, Powell writes, was the “atheist in residence” and a serious pain in the back bench!
At the end of the course, he asked: “Do you think I’ll ever find God?” Powell emphatically said: “No!” and added: “Tommy! I don’t think you’ll ever find him, but I am certain that he will find you!” Tommy left Powell’s class and life.
Sometime later, Powell heard that Tommy had terminal cancer. He returned to Powell to tell him that God had found him. When the cancer was detected, Tommy said he “got serious about locating God… and began banging bloody fists against the bronze doors of heaven. But God did not come out.” Then “one day I turned around and God was there. He didn’t come to me when I pleaded with him… Apparently God does things in his own way and at his own hour. But he was there. He found me. He found me even after I stopped looking for him.” Tommy found God when he opened his heart to love his own father and the people to whom he was close.
The story of Zacchaeus is like Tommy’s. Zacchaeus went in search of Jesus the wonder worker… and God found him. Rather, he allowed God to find him when he opened his heart to love the poor.
Two questions!
Why does God—the hound of heaven—seek us and wait till we allow ourselves to be found? We have an answer in the First Reading: “You have mercy on all… and you overlook people’s sins that they may repent. For you love all things…” Love is the reason why God waits for us; love does not compel.
Why do we take so long to allow God to find us? Perhaps because God challenges us to change, and we don’t like/ want to change! Luke probably intends the story of Zacchaeus as a contrast to the earlier story of the rich young man (18:18-23). Both are rich and look for Jesus. The young man has observed the commandments from his youth; Zacchaeus is a tax collector and a sinner. The young man is saddened by Jesus’ challenge to sell his possessions and follow him; Zacchaeus responds with joy and repentance to Jesus’ invitation to stay at his house.
Today’s liturgy reminds us that God constantly seeks us and waits for us to respond to his love.
Will I allow God to find me? Will I change my life and open my heart to love? What is the change that I need in my life?
May you and I do this so that the Lord can say: “Today salvation has come to this house”!
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