Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

"Zacchaeus, come down quickly,
for today I must stay at your house."
And he came down quickly and received him with joy.
When they saw this, they began to grumble, saying,
"He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner."
Luke 19:5-7

Reflection:
Why does it bother the righteous when God saves sinners. Is it perhaps because we feel their sins merit them an existence in hell rather than heaven. That they should be destroyed and not blight the earth or our lives. Not so according to Jesus, he came to save them from sin.

Zacchaeus is a good example on how we are to respond when God pokes his finger on our chest to say, smarten up. He quickly answered Jesus' call and said yes. He received him with joy in his house. What a response, that is.

I too was a sinner, and when God poked his finger at me, I responded with a joyful response and welcomed him into my home. My faith was not lukewarm either, and my faithfulness has been hot ever since.

But this is not about me, it is about how we respond to God in our life when he calls us. How would you respond should he poke his finger at you and say come, I want you to follow me. Would you respond with a burning yes, or a lukewarm I'm not really interested, or nothing at all.
Are we hot for God or cold? Because lukewarm is in the middle of the road and they aren't going anywhere fast. If we are lukewarm then nothing will budge us from our lethargy about God and all that he holds dear. There is a remedy for the lukewarm people, letting the Holy Spirit light the fire that is smoldering within them.

Zacchaeus burned with zeal and quickly responded to Jesus' call, how about us.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very nice reflection. I want to be thought of as a "zealot", in a good way, by God. I must respond to His call,whole-heartedly!

Paul Anthony Melanson said...

Francesco Caraval, a disciple of Monsignor JoseMarie Escriva de Balaguer (now Blessed Balaguer - the founder of Opus Dei) wrote an excellent book entitled "Lukewarmness: The Devil in Disguise."

I would recommend this deeply profound work. It is published by Scepter Press.

We can all learn much by meditating on Revelation 3:16.

Paul Anthony Melanson said...

To order the book:

www.catholictreasures.com/cartdescrip/10933.html

Marie Cecile said...

Thank you Tim, I hope you do to!

Marie Cecile said...

Paul,

Thank you for the link and for the meditation. I couldn't help think that in our life if we are lukewarm, God can do the impossible to them as well, not just spit them out.