Commentary
Sunday, 11/3/2019, Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time
God Is the Perfect Parent
First Reading Commentary: Wisdom 11:22-12:2
If we are a good parent, our children have the best of our love. However, because we are not perfect, we cannot be as good to our children as God is to us. But we try our best.
We nurture our children and teach them; council them and console them; we correct them and when necessary, we chastise and punish them. But then we forgive them.
We provide for them and do our best to make it possible for them to have the best of everything. Sometimes this means that we spoil them.
We are disappointed when things do not go well for them but we are proud of them when they succeed. If they are unhappy, we are sad but when they are happy, we are too.
We listen to our children and look out for their best interests although teenagers usually don’t believe that. We stand by our children and defend them when they are under attack. We protect our children in every way possible and if necessary, we will lay down our lives for our children.
Think about it: everything that I have just described, God the Father has done for us. He even gave His life in the person of the Son. God continues to do for us and that is what Wisdom tells us today.
If you put all of God’s creation together, it is nothing in comparison to the Creator Himself. Wisdom puts it this way, “Before the LORD the whole universe is a grain from a balance or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth.” And yet God gave His Son’s life for something which is so insignificant to Himself. But we are not unimportant to God and that is the key.
In fact, we are so important to our Creator that He made us in His image and then put a part of Himself inside each one of us. We have His goodness and we have His Spirit. But God also gave us a free will and because we can never be as perfect as our Creator; we sin.
Now you might ask the question: Why did God give us a free will if He knew that in our imperfection, we would sin? The answer is because God loves us enough to allow us to make our own decisions and He is a God who does not force Himself because He does not have to and God would rather that we choose to love Him.
You might be so bold as to say that our sinfulness is God’s fault because He gave us the ability to sin by means of our free will. Remember Adam who blamed the woman that God gave him? Adam could not have made a worse mistake and don’t dare get it twisted. That mistake by Adam is why we are not in the Garden of Eden today. I would suggest that none of us blame our sinfulness on our Creator. The point is that God shows His mercy to those who admit to their mistakes—confess their sins.
It is indeed a good thing that God has mercy and that God reminds us of our sins so that we might abandon our wickedness and believe in Him enough to admit our mistakes to Him. Why? Because God loves His creation and is the perfect parent.
Do Not Be Shaken or Alarmed
Second Reading Commentary 2 Thessalonians: 1:11-2:2
Prayer is important and it is always good to pray for each other. In his second letter to the Thessalonians, Paul tells the people that he always prays for them. Paul’s intention was that God would make the people worthy of His calling bringing to fulfillment every effort of faith so that the name of Jesus would be glorified in them and the people in Jesus according, to God’s grace.
I cannot testify to always praying for this intention. Like most people, I pray for this or for that. Things like peace, less of a burden in life, or something tangible like money. Don’t deny it—we all do. Refuse to admit to it? Well if you have ever prayed for a better job, I will bet that somehow, money was part of the reason why.
But how many times do we make our intention for others the same as Paul’s intention for the Thessalonians? I will admit that I need to make it a common practice. Such a prayer shows humility and unselfishness and is sure to get God’s attention.
So why is it that we are not already worthy? Because; in spite; of our very best efforts; we make mistakes which cause us to fall into sin. And, as it relates to today’s message, all too often our prayers have selfish motives. This, is why it is important that we do not stop praying for ourselves and for each other.
Paul tells the Thessalonians not to be shaken or alarmed by anything that they hear, no matter how they may hear it, about the day of the Lord being at hand. There are three reasons why we should not be alarmed but we should be excited. The first reason is that we should not consider the second coming as a day of death.
There are many false prophets who proclaim that the second coming will be a day of total-destruction and death. But the truth is that when Christ comes again, He will be coming to fulfill the promise of the Kingdom of Heaven. He will be coming to grant eternal life to those who will be with Him in the Kingdom. If a second death (eternal damnation in hell) comes to anyone, it will be because they chose not to be with Christ because of their sins and refusal to repent.
The second reason why we should not be shaken or alarmed at the second coming is that we have been given every opportunity to make ourselves ready for that day. We have been warned time and time again in both the Old and New Testaments and Jesus gave us the Sacrament of Confession.
The third reason is because God does not want us to be afraid of Him. If we are afraid of God, it can only be because we are not at peace with Him and that is our fault—not His.
If we do our best to live our lives according to God’s Will and repent for whatever sins that we commit; heaven will be ours. This is not something to be alarmed at but rather, it is something to look forward to. Eternal happiness in heaven should be our number one goal in life and that goal will be achieved if we are at peace with God.
Jesus Came to Seek and Save What Was Lost
Gospel Commentary: Luke 19:1-10
Zacchaeus, a wealthy tax collector, wanted to see Jesus but because he was short in stature, he was unable to look over the people. So, he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree and when Jesus approached the tree, He said, “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.”
If Jesus were to approach me on the street and tell me that He must stay at my house, I believe that I would be so emotionally overwhelmed that I would faint. What would any of us do if this were to happen? Would we be embarrassed because our house is not in order?
That should be the farthest thing from our minds because the house of importance is not the physical structure that we live in but the temple which is our body. If we keep our temple clean, we will be excited to have Jesus come to stay with us and He will because God lives in His temple. Furthermore, God does come to stay with us each time that we partake in the Eucharist.
The people in the crowd grumbled saying, “He has gone to stay in the house of a sinner.” To that I say, so what—we are all sinners. They had a problem of jealousy and obviously thought that they were better than Zacchaeus because he was a tax collector. That pride is the very thing that kept Jesus from staying with any of them.
But Zacchaeus had the right reaction. He was filled with joy because Jesus had made his day. Such was his faith and Zacchaeus said, “Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone, I shall repay it four times over.” Did Zacchaeus have to repay four times over? No, he did not. But it was his way of repenting for his sins and Jesus acknowledged the repentance of Zacchaeus.
Jesus said, “Today, salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.” Everyone who believes in God and follows Jesus as the Son is a descendant of Abraham. Jesus promised salvation to Zacchaeus and proclaimed him as a descendant because of his faith and because Zacchaeus repented.
In sin, we are lost. But God knows what is deep within our hearts. If we have faith, humility and remorse for our sins like Zacchaeus, God will seek us out and bless us with the grace of His mercy.
