33rd Week, Tuesday, Nov 15
Rev 3:1-6, 14-22 / Luke 19:1-10
I knock at the door; If anyone answers, I will enter.
The British theologian C. S. Lewis describes his conversion in his book Surprised by Joy. One day, riding on a bus, he got the feeling that he was blocking something out of his life. He felt as though he was keeping a door closed. Then and there, he felt he was being given the grace to open the door if he wished. Or, if he wished, he could keep it closed. He writes, "I knew that to open the door... meant the incalculable." He then adds, "I chose to open it." That choice started him on the road to Christianity and a new life. What happened to Lewis happens to all of Jesus knocks at the door of our hearts, inviting us to open ourselves more fully to him. Whether or not we do is up to us.
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Are we keeping any doors closed in our life? "We live but a fraction of our lives." Brendan Francis
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John reprimands the Christians of Sardis and Laodicea that they have abandoned their earlier fervour and are in need of conversion. Note the harsh words to the Laodiceans who are neither cold nor hot but only lukewarm: “I will spit you out of my mouth.”
Today we meet Zacchaeus, the rich typical sinner as a tax collector, who is small and poor as a person. He runs to encounter Jesus and is converted through this encounter, but it is really Jesus who takes the initiative by calling Zacchaeus out of the tree and asking whether he can stay in his house. This is the solution for the sinner, cold or lukewarm: accept to encounter the Lord again. This message is spoken to us too. Encountering Jesus will change us too.
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Generally speaking, a miracle is an event attributed to some kind of supernatural intervention; there is an interruption to the laws of nature or just simply something that is unlikely to happen yet beneficial and even wonderful. So, it can be said that a miracle usually brings about something good, such as escaping danger and injuries, surviving from a certain deadly situation, or just beating the odds.
We don't usually say that what happened to Zacchaeus, that wealthy senior tax collector in today's gospel, is a miracle. We may simply call it conversion and repentance. But the effect of Jesus calling out to Zacchaeus was simply amazing, if not miraculous. The man changed immediately and became a generous, open-handed and charitable benefactor. Jesus called out to him in love while he was on that sycamore tree and he listened and responded. If anything, we can say that the miracle was that Zacchaeus listened and responded to Jesus.
Yet in the 1st reading, it seems that the Lord Jesus is pleading with the churches in Sardis and Laodicea to listen to Him and He said this: If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. But what is said to the churches is also said to us and it is up to us to listen and respond to the call of conversion and repentance.
What happened to Zacchaeus was indeed a miracle. And miracles will happen to us too - when we listen and respond.
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Prayer
God of mercy and compassion, you know how often our fervour cools off, how poor of heart we are at times when we think we are rich and sure to belong to you. Let us encounter your Son again in the deepest of ourselves, help us to look for him, that his presence may change us and that he may live among us. We ask you this through Christ our Lord. Amen
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Saint Albert the Great
Albert the Great was a 13th-century German Dominican who decisively influenced the Church’s stance toward Aristotelian philosophy brought to Europe by the spread of Islam.
Students of philosophy know him as the master of Thomas Aquinas. Albert’s attempt to understand Aristotle’s writings established the climate in which Thomas Aquinas developed his synthesis of Greek wisdom and Christian theology. But Albert deserves recognition on his own merits as a curious, honest, and diligent scholar.
He was the eldest son of a powerful and wealthy German lord of military rank. He was educated in the liberal arts. Despite fierce family opposition, he entered the Dominican novitiate.
His boundless interests prompted him to write a compendium of all knowledge: natural science, logic, rhetoric, mathematics, astronomy, ethics, economics, politics, and metaphysics. His explanation of learning took 20 years to complete. “Our intention,” he said, “is to make all the aforesaid parts of knowledge intelligible to the Latins.”
He achieved his goal while serving as an educator at Paris and Cologne, as Dominican provincial, and even as bishop of Regensburg for a short time. He defended the mendicant orders and preached the Crusade in Germany and Bohemia. Albert, a Doctor of the Church, is the patron of scientists and philosophers.
