31st Sunday of Ordinary Time, “A Person Who Learned How to Live”

“God has created me to do him some definite service.  He has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another.  I have my mission.  I may never know it in this life but shall be told it in the next.  I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons.  He has not created me for naught.”

             These are Words of St. John Newman.

            How do we teach others God’s unconditional love without making people complacent?  Can we talk about the second coming of Jesus without emphasizing fear and damnation?

            St. Paul was trying to strike the right tone with the Thessalonians as he wrote his epistles to them.  St. Paul only spent a few weeks in the city of Thessalonica as a traveling missionary.  He was successful.  Christianity took hold there.  And this was very important because Thessalonica sat on a major trade route.  Thessalonica had a major seaport.  People traveled through town everyday as they went to all corners of the Roman Empire.  St. Paul wanted to have a sound Christian Theology spreading in the world. 

            Unfortunately, when St. Paul spoke about the second coming of Jesus he was misinterpreted by the Thessalonian Christians.  If Jesus is coming soon, why go about the mundane activities of our everyday life?  The Christians in Thessalonica sat idle, just waiting for the Day of the Lord to come.  Paul tries to correct this false notion. He tells them they need to be working right up until the time the Lord returns.  The Christians he wrote to were worried only about their own soul, not anyone else’s.

            When we think about Jesus’s second coming most of us don’t relate to that.  For us that day seems far away. But when we think of our own death, we become more serious.  What are we to do when we know the end is near?

            I knew a woman once who was diagnosed with brain cancer.  She was given three months to live.  She did not despair but began preparations.  She thought of others.  She started to clean up her house, disposing of possessions as people often do, who are dying.  She also called in all her children as well as all her grandchildren, her nieces her nephews.  She had a one on one session with each of them.  She told them why she loved them.  She also told them what she expected of them in the years to come. She empathized with their weaknesses.   She spoke to them of her faith in life after death.  She expressed her confidence in the Lord.  The women also called in friends with whom she had the same frank conversations.

            One would think that this would have been a difficult thing for people, perhaps that they would have avoided the hard face to face talks, but most of her loved ones came to sit in her home whenever they could as she died.  You could tell they wanted to be a part of an ongoing conversation about the meaning of life.  Her funeral was a true celebration of life, not a secular gathering where the topic of God was avoided, but a religious experience for most of those in the church. True joy was felt for an hour and a half. People walked away with a sense of hope even in the face of death.

            Today, we read the story of the little tax collector, Zacchaeus, who comes to see Jesus.  Why did this wealthy secular official want to meet this backward Rabbi from Galilee?  He had to know that as a tax collector for the Roman Empire he would be pushed around.  People in the crowd probably would use the opportunity to throw an elbow in his ribs or curse at him.  Perhaps that is why Zacchaeus ran ahead to climb a tree where he would be out of harm’s way.

            What was he looking for?  He came looking for a reason to live.  He was leading a hollow existence building his fortune. He was caught up in selfish consumption. We can imagine he felt dead inside. When he met Jesus, it changed his life.  He began to ask the question, “How can my life make a difference?”

            When John Newman had his moment of conversion, he felt what Zacchaeus felt. He understood what God’s plan was.  He wrote:

            “He has not created me for naught. I shall do His work. I shall

            be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place while

            not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments.”

            We pray today that we can be angels of peace who lead others to Christ.

Please Note: rough draft~grammar may not be perfect.