Press On: Reflections on the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Beloved,
One might wonder what a wealthy and popular man like Zacchaeus was doing rubbing shoulders with commoners, wanting to see an itinerant preacher of no standing, like Jesus? Should he not rather be hobnobbing with famous rabbis, instead of a wandering Jew of no pedigree? On the contrary, Zacchaeus humbled himself to seek Jesus. However, he had some impediments that made his quest a herculean one – prominent among which were the crowd, and his height. He could not do anything about the crowd, because they were taller than he was, and perhaps, stronger too. He could not do anything about his height either. But there was something he could do. He could either allow himself to be discouraged and not press on, or he could devise alternative ways of achieving his purpose. He chose the latter. Although the walls that prevented Zacchaeus from a face-to-face encounter with Jesus were formidable, he was relentless in his resolve to see Jesus.

All he needed was that one encounter for his life to be transformed. He not only repented, but also became a witness to the mercy of Jesus. Our blessed Lord comes to us daily at every Mass. He waits for us daily in the Tabernacles of every Catholic Church in the world. But there are often impediments to our seeing him. We see the humble elements of bread and wine and we stop there rather than going further by faith to see that those mere materials have become transformed into the true Body and Blood of Jesus when the words of consecration are pronounced over them by a validly ordained priest. We fail to realize that the Lord comes to us in the priest, in the words of scripture that is proclaimed to us at Mass, and in the brother and sister who sits next to us at Mass. We tend to be limited in our vision because of the ordinariness of these various modes Christ comes to us. These could be our impediments to seeing Jesus. So, what are we going to do? Give up pressing on, or stay the course? There is a lot we can learn from Zacchaeus today.

This week decide to press on to see Jesus. Spend time in adoration of Our Blessed Lord in the Eucharist. This does not happen by chance; there must be some intentionality to it. In its Decree on the Life and Ministry of Priests, Presbyterorum Ordinis, no. 5, the Second Vatican Council proclaims, “The Most Holy Eucharist contains the Church’s entire spiritual wealth: Christ himself, our Passover and living bread.” If this is our faith, it seems logical to ask that we begin to think about how to live it out. How do we make time for Jesus? As we plan our calendars, whether for doctors’ appointments, hair appointments, grocery shopping, etc. could we put time for adoration in there too?

May all the saints, whose feast day we celebrate this week, help us to love Jesus as they did and revere him in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the altar.