To See Clearly
The book of Wisdom compares our universe to a drop of morning dew. Soon, in Wisconsin, that little drop will be a tiny little ice crystal. It is the thought of our entire universe being the size of a tiny little ice crystal in the eyes of God.
Now that we can see pictures of earth from a satellite in space, we begin to realize just how small we are. Which allows us to reflect on our God, that He loves us so much, even though we are so small, and He is so great. And as He is so great, He loves us and wants us to be with Him. This is just amazing and difficult to understand.
Zacchaeus is an example of how we discovered Jesus. First, we are told about Jesus, and we develop a desire to want to see Jesus. But we cannot see Him because there are obstacles. Maybe we are not physically tall. Maybe there are too many people around Jesus, and we cannot see Him. Maybe other people prevent us from seeing Him. Maybe we do not even know where we are supposed to look.
As our faith grows, we strive to overcome the obstacles. We study the faith. We come to mass. Maybe we even must climb trees to see Jesus. We try to overcome all the obstacles and we forget that Jesus is looking to find us, too. To our surprise, Jesus sees us, He finds us first before we see Him. There are no obstacles for Jesus to overcome. Jesus looks directly into our hearts. Jesus sees what is good and what is bad. Jesus begins to remove the bad to focus on the good. Our hearts begin to change because we have been seen by Jesus.
Look how Jesus moves closer to us. Jesus did not wait for Zacchaeus to invite Him into his home. Jesus invited Himself into Zacchaeus home. Zacchaeus come down; I intend to eat with you today!
Once we have made our hearts open to Jesus, we find ourselves conforming our will to His Will. In the crowd, everyone sees Zacchaeus as a bad person. But Jesus sees the good. Zacchaeus is impetuous. He boasts he will make generous restitution. When we see how our sins have hurt others, we want to make restitution just like Zacchaeus.
Zacchaeus made himself vulnerable. He wanted to see Jesus. The crowd judged Zacchaeus harshly. They did not see what Jesus saw. We need to stop judging others and look for the good Jesus sees in each of us. Most importantly, let us look and see how God is working through us.
May the Lord bless you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen