Staying Focused (15th Sunday of Luke : Zacchaeus)
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by Fr. Peter Chamberas
15th Sunday of Luke (Zacchaeus)
Staying Focused
By Fr. Peter Chamberas
One
of the greatest advantages of our culture is that its diverseness
offers us choices and opportunities that have not existed before. More
and more citizens are rejecting convention and finding their own way.
One
of the greatest disadvantages of our culture is that its diverseness
offers us choices and opportunities that have not existed before. More
and more citizens are rejecting convention and finding their own way.
All
these opportunities have created so many choices that there is little
reliance on convention. In former times limitations and expectations
generally made decision making rather easy. But now, it has become more
and more difficult to stay focused. One man who found himself stuck
between opportunity and convention found an unconventional way to find
his own way to Salvation. He allowed neither opportunity nor convention
to be his flagship. Rather, he used Christ as his gauge. His name was
Zacchaeus and he has been immortalized in the Gospel for his efforts.
Zacchaeus
had heard that Jesus would be visiting his town. Because he wasn't very
tall he couldn't see over the crowd. Unlike many of those present,
Zacchaeus was neither sick, nor unhappy, nor poor. He wasn't looking
for a miracle of healing. He had plenty of money. He had good health.
He probably had lots of friends and a lovely family. Instead he needed
a focus. He had everything he could possibly want, both by conventional
standards and by the opportunities of his society. But he couldn't see
Christ. So that little man, climbed the Sycamore tree, and saw his
opportunity for salvation.
By changing hisÆnÇ¿us,
Zacchaeus changed his perspective. He would now see the world in a new
way and because of that become a new person.
The story of
Zacchaeus has a special appeal because it describes a man with
advatages. The only difference between his time and ours, is that we
are an entire society or generation of people living with all kinds of
advantages. Not too long ago, our ancestors were picking olives, or
tending sheep, hoping only to get enough firewood and food to keep
their families safe. Now we are a community of leaders and opinion
makers, and the financial contributors to various institutions. Within
all this it has become very difficult to stay focused.
There is
a phenomenon that the more successful one becomes the less successful
one actually feels. Big people feel small inside. Often they feel
overwhelmed by their own importance . Perhaps, they feel like David the
Shepherd Boy who tackled the scary giant, Goliath. They are afraid that
the giant will never really fall, so they are forced to face him time
and time again.
David, in his lifetime, discovered what Zacchaeus
seemed to know intuitively. That it is really the power of God that
slays the giant. Zacchaeus knew that it was Christ who could change his
focus and make his life worthwhile and valuable.
In some ways
Zacchaeus represents the many people who secretly feel small. The ones
who feel as if they are frauds, or like those who have to keep
reminding everyone how important they are, because they don't believe
that they are in least important. They feel very little.
When
Zacchaeus climbed that sycamore, he did so for all of us who fall short
of the expectations which are inherent in living. Whether that
shortfall is real or just a perception, it remains a barrier to
salvation, because we tend to focus on it.
Christ did not leave
Zacchaeus sitting anxiously in the tree. He acknowledged him and then
He called him down. "Make haste and come down. For I must stay at your
house today." The Lord Himself sees Zacchaeus in his suffering, and
offers to give credibility to this man hated and despised by so many.
All this because Zacchaeus was willing to change his focus. The message
has not changed. Jesus Christ offers salvation to anyone willing to
break with convention and seek Him out. Whether we are living with
opportunities or disasters, diversity or convention, Christ will call
us from our searching, to give us what we need. Zacchaeus set the
example,. If we follow his lead, then Christ will announce that
"salvation has come" to each of us because our Lord has not come for
the successful or the failures, but to "seek and save the lost."
