[stephenkhoo]

THE ONLY WAY TO SEE GOD IS TO BE SINGLE-MINDED
SCRIPTURE READINGS: 2 MC 6:18-31; LK 19:1-10
http://www.universalis.com/20131119/mass.htm

Deep in the heart of every person is a desire to encounter God. Yet, it is a fact that many of us do not have an experience of God in our lives. Like Zacchaeus, we, too, would like to have a glimpse of Jesus. What is it then that is preventing us from encountering Jesus in our lives?

For many of us, we think that the real obstacle towards our union with God is sin. This is true. Sin can prevent us from being fully in union with God. However, sin does not prevent us from encountering God totally. If that was so, no one can be saved. That is why the gospel reassures us that it is not sins that prevent us from encountering God. Zacchaeus we are told in the gospel, was one of the senior tax collectors and therefore a great sinner. Yet it is to such people that Jesus came for as He said, “the Son of Man has come to seek out and save what was lost.” Indeed, if we find ourselves still rather sinful and living unenlightened lives, it is because of the fact that we have not yet encountered the love of God in our lives. If we have been touched by God’s love, then His love will protect us from the sinful situation in our lives. Hence, the gospel is clear that the grace of God reaches to us, even as sinners.

The condition for encountering God is not to be sinless but to recognize our sinfulness. This was precisely the situation of Zacchaeus. He understood the lack in his life. Although he was wealthy, he felt empty. He knew that something was lacking and that was why he desperately wanted to see Jesus. Yes, this is the key to encountering God. We must be desperate to see Jesus. We must realize that incompleteness within ourselves. It does not matter whether we are great sinners or whether we are worthy or not. All that is required is that we desire to see God. Unless, we realize our need for an encounter with God, we can never experience Him. And we know that many sinners who have been touched by God have been converted and transformed in their lives. Only those who recognize their need for God, like Zacchaeus can be touched by Him. Conversely, those people who did not feel the need to be saved; those who were in the gospel complaining about Jesus dining at the house of a sinner were not saved.

So recognizing our sinfulness and having the desire to see God are the pre-requisites of encountering him. However, having the desire to encounter God is not sufficient. God’s grace does not work without our co-operation. We must make ourselves available to His grace. In other words, we must look for all opportunities to experience Him. We must find all ways to encounter Him. We cannot sit around and continue in our emptiness hoping that God will one day just appear before us. We have to do what Zacchaeus did. We are told that he was a man of short stature and he anticipated that Jesus would pass by a particular route and so he climbed up a sycamore tree to wait for Jesus.

Now, it is the same for us too. We must be as resourceful as Zacchaeus. We must find all ways and means to encounter Jesus in our lives. If we find that a particular way of meditation or prayer is not helping us to gain access to Jesus, then we must be creative and take the initiative to develop or experiment other forms of prayer life. The problem with us is that we dare not take risk or are too lazy and complacent to be available to the new forms of prayer. We prefer to continue with the safe and traditional ways of praying even when such forms of prayer are not leading us closer to God. I am not saying that traditional ways of praying cannot lead us to God. What I want to say is that God touches us in different ways and we must allow Him the avenues to reach out to us. In other words, we must make ourselves available to Him. Indeed, what is prayer and meditation but simply to be alert to the presence of God within us.

But that is not all. We are told that Zacchaeus, although a wealthy man, even made a fool of himself by climbing up the tree, perching in an undignified way simply to have a look at Jesus. Zacchaeus was really sincere in wanting to meet the Lord. He did not allow obstacles to prevent him from meeting Jesus. He knew that others would ridicule him. But he was willing to humble himself so that he can meet Jesus. We too can learn from Zacchaeus. If we want to encounter God, we must humble ourselves and learn from others who have had a deep experience of God. We must not think that just because we have been Catholics all our lives, practice our faith religiously, are instructors of the faith, or know scriptures and theology very well; there is therefore nothing we can learn from others. We should never think that we have a monopoly of God.

On the contrary, we have much to learn from others. There are many newly baptized and young people who have had very intimate encounters with the Lord. And we know that these encounters are real because we can see the transformation in their lives just as we see in the life of Zacchaeus. After he was touched by the Lord, he was willing to give half of his belongings to the poor and restitute anything four times the amount that he had taken. This is also true of Eleazar, whom we are told in the first reading of his fidelity to God and his irresponsibility towards his people, especially the young who would imitiate his bad example if he had been compromising in his faith. This is very true also in the many conversion testimonies that we hear each day. Those who have been touched by God, are full of generosity. In spite of their work and family commitments, they still can find time to attend formation classes and to render their services to the Church and to the community.

So let us pray that we might make ourselves available to the grace of God in our lives. We pray that we might have a deeper relationship with Jesus. If we truly want to see Him, and are humble enough, God will surely grace us with His presence. He will indeed come to stay at our house as well and dine with us. And once we are touched by Him, then we will be like Zacchaeus or Eleazar in today’s scripture readings, both of whom are totally committed to the Lord in their self-sacrificing love for God and for their fellow-human beings.