Bible
Study: Wisdom 11, 22 to 12, 2. 2nd
Thessalonians 1, 11 to 2, 2 and Luke 19, 1 to 10.
If you
recall last Sunday, two men went to the temple to pray. One considered himself righteous
and ended up praying to himself. The other man, being a tax collector simply said:
“God, be merciful to me, a sinner” and he went home justified. Today, we see
another humble man, a chief tax collector who acknowledged his sinfulness before
God when Jesus visited his house. And for this, Jesus said: “Today, salvation
has come to this house.”
When we
are able to acknowledge our sinfulness before God and express a sincere desire
to repent, the gift we get is salvation. But then, it takes a deep sense of
humility on our part to admit that we are wrong or that we are not perfect.
There is always a tendency to readily cast blames to others. We believe every
other person is the bad person while we are simply victims of other people’s
crimes. Even we sin consciously, we accuse the devil.
Sometime ago,
a group of Armed Robbers were caught and when asked the reason for their
action, they blamed the Government for not providing jobs. They not only spoke
good and correct English, they also proved they were second-class upper
graduates and they seemed to have no remorse for their act of robbery. That is
the classic attitude of most people and this attitude is quite offensive to
God.
Zacchaeus
had the very opposite attitude. He knew he was short and he knew he had short-comings,
he knew that he was a sinner and that he had defrauded people in the business
of collecting taxes. Yet, he did not push the blame on anyone else. He took
full responsibility for his actions and he made efforts to get things right
with God. He climbed a sycamore tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus.
Do I really
acknowledge my sinfulness? Or do I believe that people or circumstances are to
blame for my actions? Can I actually stand before God today and say the prayer
of the tax collector: “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner?” What efforts am I making
to change? To climb the sycamore tree? To go for confession? Or to declare like
Zacchaeus: “Half of my goods, I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded
anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” Have I ever stolen anything in the
past? What is stopping me from returning it today?
For
declaring his intention to return stolen goods, Jesus said: “Salvation has come
to this house.” The salvation we are seeking by going to church day in day out
is actually very easy to attain. All we have to do to get it is to return today
whatever we have stolen, to share our goods with the poor and repent of our
sinfulness.
Let us
pray:
Lord
Jesus, be merciful to me a sinner. Amen.
Be Happy.
Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. God bless you. Happy
Sunday.
Fr. Abu
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