31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Human as we are, we want to belong to someone or to a group or community. We want to be recognized that we too exist in this world. In a world like ours, a world of competition, there are those who strive hard to win the approval of many so that they can satisfy their need for belongingness. In our Gospel (Lk 19:1-10),  Zacchaeus is a figurehead of a person who seeks another person or community to belong to. When he climbed a sycamore tree, he wanted to show to the world that he could be greater than anyone else. And when Jesus saw him and asked him to come down quickly, Zacchaeus thought he did it his way to satisfy his need for belongingness by showing Jesus that he could do great. What he never realized, it was Jesus who initiated everything to make him feel accepted and to satisfy his need for belongingness. Jesus clearly stated, "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.” It means then that Zacchaeus did not have to do anything in order to belong to Jesus. He could simply show himself before Jesus and everything would be fine. This is the same lesson we need to learn as a Catholic. We do not have to do great works in the parish so as to feel that we belong to God. If a parishioner works hard just to impress his/her parish priest, he/she could not do the same before God. Whether he/she does something big or small in the parish, it does not matter because God loves him/her as who he/she is and not because of what he/she can do best.