We confuse our "needs" with "wants."

                 "Today salvation has come to this house"

Luke 19:9

I remember this story about a new parish Church that was built in an upper middle-class suburb. One Sunday mornings in the immediate neighborhood it is no longer as quiet as they used to be. The cars were noisy as members of the congregation drove into the Church parking lot or parked in front of homes in the area. The powerful organ and vigorous hymn-singing could be heard a block away. Some of the nearby residents who liked to sleep through their Sunday mornings, circulated a petition to curtail the noise. When the petition was presented to a certain Jewish man who lived within half a block of the Church, he refused to sign. "No," he said, "I won't sign that petition. Those people sing as though they really believe that the Messiah came. If I could believe that, I would sing out even louder, and not just once but seven days a week." 

In today's Gospel, Jesus comes into the neighborhood of a certain Jewish man named Zacchaeus. Although small in stature, Zacchaeus is big in the neighborhood: a "chief tax collector and rich," Luke tells us. He is also a curious man. He wants to get a look at this man, Jesus, whom crowds of people are following wherever He goes. But because he is so short, physically, Zacchaeus can't see above the crowd waiting for Jesus to pass by. So he runs on ahead and climbs a sycamore tree. And when Jesus comes to the place, He looks up and says, "Zacchaeus, make haste and come down; for I must stay at your house today" (Lk. 19:3, 4-5). Whereupon Zacchaeus scrambles down from the tree, and receives Jesus into his home. Meanwhile, the crowd outside complains that Jesus "has gone to be a guest in the house of a sinner." 

The trouble with Zacchaeus, the little man in our Gospel is greed! He has made a career out of using his position of power to exploit other people in order to line his own pockets. And, in the final scene in today's episode, it seems clear that his greed has caught up with him, giving him a troubled conscience. Then Jesus comes walking into his life and he makes that 180 degree turn we call "repentance," which means conversion, change, born again, transformation. Call it what you will, in this case, Jesus calls it "salvation." We read in Luke:  

And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold." And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house ... For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost" (Lk. 19:8-10). 

One of our troubles can be that we confuse "needs" with "wants." How many times have you said, "I need a new car" or "I need a new house" or "I need new clothes" or "I need this or that or the other thing," when those "needs" weren't actual needs at all, but "wants." Do you get the point? You can legitimately "want" all those things, but they aren't needs that address any of life's fundamental issues. Your real needs consist of such things as the need to forgive; the need for self-esteem; the need to be of service to others who are in need; the need to embrace an attitude and approach to life and to other persons that is in harmony with God's Will; the need to begin now to experience the joy of eternal life with God in and through a loving  relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Come Sunday, we gather together, with Jesus in our midst, to praise God and listen to His Word, and we give lip service to our need to do His Will. But, come Monday, unless we truly commit ourselves to a day-to-day effort to pick up our cross and follow Jesus, once again we will begin to confuse "needs" with "wants." Come Monday, doing God's Will (our genuine need for experiencing the good life) will give way, once again, to those incessant "wants" that promise the good life but never deliver. 

There was a story of little girl accompanied her mother to the country "General Store." After the mother had made a large purchase, the proprietor invited the little girl to help herself to a handful of candy. The child held back. "What's wrong, don't you like the candy?" the proprietor asked. The child said "Yes, I like the candy." Whereupon the proprietor put his hand into the jar and dropped a generous portion in the girl's cupped hands. Later, the mother asked the little girl why she had not taken the candy when it was first offered. "Because his hand was bigger than mine," she said.

When it comes to fulfilling your every "want" there may be times when it seems that God's hand is small, or isn't there at all. But when it comes to fulfilling your genuine need to grow into the beautiful, compassionate, forgiving, generous person you were created to be, God is always ready, willing and able to demonstrate that His is the biggest hand of all! 

God Bless you all!

Fr. Nony,CRM

An ongoing, persistent hunger and thirst  -29th Sunday 2019

A certain pastor was becoming disheartened by the attitude of many persons in the congregation. "This Church is lifeless." they were saying.  Sunday attendance began dropping sharply and the spiritual life of the Church was at such a low ebb that the pastor decided on a course of action to improve the situation.  Consequently, he announced that since the Church was considered dead, he would conduct its funeral the following Sunday. 

When Sunday came, the Church was crowded.  From their pews, the people stared curiously at the coffin that had been placed in front of the pulpit.  The pastor climbed into the pulpit and eulogized "the deceased."  He spoke of how much the Church had accomplished in the past and he expressed sorrow over its untimely demise.  Then he invited the congregation to come forward and view the "corpse."  

One by one the people looked into the casket, and each was amazed to see his of her own face reflected from a mirror laying in the bottom of the coffin.  Most were shocked.  Some were indignant.  But they slowly but surely began to realize that the Church's lifelessness of which they complained was due largely to their own spiritual indifference.

Do you remember the scene on the Mount of Transfiguration?  Jesus wanted so much to be at one with God that when the Apostles, Peter, James and John, looked at Him, He was literally aglow in a fever of prayer.  

Do you remember the scene in the Garden of Gethsemane?  Jesus wanted so much to identify with the Will of God, that He perspired so profusely Luke said it was like great drops of blood.  

This is how very much Jesus wanted God.  This is how Jesus persisted in calling on God's goodness, day and night.

The lesson for us is to do whatever is needed to acquire a real hunger and thirst for God and His goodness, in imitation of Jesus.  If it means changing your job, you do it.  If it means radically changing a family relationship, you do it.  If it means a whole new way of seeing yourself and seeing others, you do it.  If it means getting rid of a destructive pleasure in your life, you do it.  If it means -- as it surely does -- assigning generous portions of your time for prayer and meditation, you do it.  If it means changing your whole lifestyle -- your whole attitude and approach to life -- you do it.

Day and night, Jesus taught His followers to long for and to work for the Coming Kingdom with a passion; a way of life; an ongoing, persistent hunger and thirst.  

In today's Gospel, Jesus' "Parable of the Unjust Judge" tells the story of a poor widow who sought justice for herself but couldn't find it.  

God's healing Presence is realized swiftly by those who call out to Him day and night -- those who want Him very much. NONY,CRM