31st Sunday 2019
Wisdom 11:22-12:2; 2 Thess 1:11-2:2; Luke 19:1-10
Before turning to the Gospel, I would like to ponder St. Paul’s words at the beginning of today’s extract from his Second Letter to the Thessalonians.
“We pray continually that God will make you worthy of His call, and by His power fulfil all your desires for goodness, and complete all that you have been doing through faith.”
Are you aware that you have been called by God—in fact, that you are constantly being called by God? Whatever situation you are in, whether you are fully active or constrained by poor health; whether you are married, single, widowed, in consecrated life or whatever; whether you are serene, or struggling, or conscious of failure; God is with you, and is calling you, in every moment, to be conscious of His grace, to be a source of blessing to those around you, to be a sign to others of God’s love, God’s forgiveness, God’s presence everywhere and at all times.
Do you have a desire for goodness? All of us are conscious of sin and failure, but do you genuinely desire to do what is right, to fulfil God’s will? If so, God will not let you down. Despite setbacks and failures, He will fill you with His goodness.
Have you been doing things through faith? If you have been praying, if you have been showing love to others, if you have been giving of your best, then you have been working in faith, and God will complete your efforts.
That opening half sentence from St. Paul chimes in with the other two readings, and combines with them to encourage us, to put heart into us, which is the literal meaning of “encourage”, from the Latin word for a heart. “You love all that exists,” says the author of the Book of Wisdom, addressing God. That means that God is on our side, that we are on a winner, that He will not let us fall out of His hands, that He will look favourably on our feeble efforts and fulfil them.
Even when we fail, God will correct us gently, and lead us back to Himself. “Little by little...you correct those who offend”—no suggestion of punishment, or of harsh measures, but of a gentle and gradual calling back to Himself—“so that they may abstain from evil, and trust in you, Lord.” Sinners are to be enabled to abstain from sin because they know that they can trust in God, that He loves them, that He is on their side.
There is nothing there that we do not know already, yet I wonder whether we really take it to heart: whether we are conscious of God’s love for us, or whether we are more inclined to trust our negative feelings of fear and self-reproach. Yet these words are borne out by the Gospel, when Jesus asserts that “the Son of Man has come to seek out and save what was lost.”
In other words, the whole point of the Incarnation, of God becoming human, was salvation. God, in the person of Jesus, came to save, not to condemn. He looks kindly on our efforts—probably more kindly than we look upon them ourselves—and He calls us gently to Himself.
To what does He call us? To welcome Him into the house which is our deepest self; to feast with Him, in the Eucharist, and in the Messianic banquet of heaven; to share our joyful welcome, the welcome which Zacchaeus gave, with our brothers and sisters who gather at the Eucharistic table.
“Hurry, because I must stay at your house today” was Jesus’ call to Zacchaeus: “Hurry, because I must stay at your house today” is Jesus’ call to us. Let us hurry to receive Him at the Eucharistic banquet: then let us hurry to take Him into our homes, where He will indeed “make us worthy of His call, fulfil all our desires for goodness, and complete all that we have been doing through faith.”
