31st Sunday in Ordinary time, Luke 19:1-10
Zacchaeus and I should hang out, I’m less than five feet tall and I feel we would have a lot of shared experience in the frustrations of crowd dwelling. I wonder if all those years of missing out and staring at the middle of people’s backs was the motivating factor for the tree climbing. I wonder if as the crowds built up, a voice inside said “not this time”.
Yes, it is indeed a proof of God’s desire for every one of us, that as much as fifty years before, that sycamore seedling had germinated maybe solely in anticipation of this moment for Zacchaeus. That the branches were so positioned, so directed by the aspect of the sun to provide the means for him to climb them.
What is more miraculous and more beautiful is what had been planted in Zacchaeus’ heart, from before he was born till this pivotal moment of encounter.
It’s easy to think this was a single moment conversion, just the one gaze and boom, Jesus is coming for tea, get the hoover out! But just as the tree had been planted way before, so had a seed of desire for Christ, unnoticed, silently growing, imperceptibly fed ready for the exact moment when it’s very purpose was revealed. God would have used the fact he was despised to know his thirst for love, that he still felt empty despite his material wealth, that he was overlooked to know his need to be seen. Yes, even the moral poverty of Zacchaeus, God would use to bring about a yes.
I think the Lord has a pivotal moment planned for all of us, a day when He holds our gaze, we hold our breath and He says “today, I am coming to your house”. Imagine that every experience, every conversation that is led by God before that point is equipping us for our response to that moment. Once we have responded then our work is to be the provider of those small or big moments nurturing the seedling growing in others. Those times we have prayed Grace boldly in a restaurant, invited people to Mass, offered to pray for them, felt called to some random act of kindness. Occasionally, we are privileged to be present at that pivotal moment for someone, but more often we are not, maybe to save us from thinking this was ever our own work.
If you have been praying hard for the conversion of someone, or think that maybe they are too far away to ever hear His call, keep going. The Lord knows just what is required for that unique person to respond, and when the timing is perfect, when everything they need for their personal fiat has been given. It is then the Holy Spirit leads us to climb, our own sycamore tree. We have then the choice to return His gaze, even then He continues to pursue our hearts if we reject Him.
So, imagine now how not one prayer, friendly smile, sign of the cross or offer of help is wasted but a deposit into the divine economy.
“Hope is not deceptive, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 5:5)
