zacchaeus-the hidden man

The person hiding in us - Zacchaeus 

Good morning/evening every one. Our special welcome to all our parishioners, visitors and every one here today. Friends in Christ, let us thank God almighty for bringing us all here to this beautiful church of St. Jean de Brebeuf/St. Paul the Apostle. Let us thank Him for sending His only Son our Lord Jesus Christ to be with us for ever. Let us thank Him for showering upon us His countless blessings each and every day. 

Now let us take a moment to prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries of our Lord Jesus Christ, calling to mind our sins, short-coming, weakness, failure, pain and sufferings, asking divine assistance and Christ our Lord's mercy, compassion and forgiveness. 

You know the best way to punish a priest? Tape his homily and make him listen over and over again. 

Once a school principal phoned one of his teachers' home to find out why she didn't come to school that day.  

A little child answered the phone. The principal said, "Who is this?" The child whispered saying, "It is Jimmy". How old are you Jimmy? I am four. Can I talk to your mom? She is busy. What about your dad? He is busy too. Is there anyone else at home? Yes.. The police officers and there are busy too. "Jimmy, who else is there?" There are fire-fighters too. They are also busy? Is your house on fire? What is going on? Then the little voice giggled and said, "I am hiding and they are all busy looking for me". 

Today there are so many people hiding from God and His compassion and love. They all have different reasons. Some are angry with God and others are mad at themselves. They are people who are not happy with others and with the world. They all have so many reasons to go away from Christ and His forgiveness. But one of the major reasons why we hide is, we did something wrong.  

Once two boys named trouble and shut-up were playing hide and seek. Shut-up was the seeker. As they were playing, a policeman looked at the boy and said, "What is your name?' The boy said, "shut-up". What? I said, "shut-up". The police officer looked the boy and said, "Are you looking for trouble, boy". The boy said, "yes, of course. But don't tell me where he is. We are playing hide and seek. 

Hide and seek game started at Eden. After their fall, Adam and Eve were hiding. When God asked them where they were. They said, "we are afraid and we are hiding". 

Sin and hiding are inseparable. That is our story too. At one point in life, We all try to run away from God and His graciousness thinking that He is going to punish us. He is going to bring something terrible to us because we sinned and thus we run away and hide from Him. 

In today's gospel, we see the hide and seek story of Zacchaeus.  The man who was a tax collector and sinner. He had a bad reputation and people kept away from him. They hated him so much because he was serving only the higher authority. Though he was a bad man and gained so much enmity from others, there was a deep longing to find God. The goodness in him pushed forward to find meaning in life.  Life without God is wasted one.  

When he heard about Christ's going through his town, wanting to see him, he claimed up on a tree and waited to see him. Zacchaeus was hiding in a tree and there comes Christ the Lord. 

When we pray to God...we always look up stretching out our hands. When we talk about God, we again look up. And this is the first time, we see in the divine history, God is looking for man looking up. Yes, Christ comes to the sycamore tree and looks up and says, "Come down Zacchaeus. I am going to stay at your place today... 

Most of the time we search God looking up not knowing that He is with us. Yes, He is with us listening to our prayers and needs. 

When Zacchaeus came down, came to his senses. Something new happened in him and without any hesitation he said, "I will give a half of my possession to the poor and if I have defrauded anyone, I will give four times as much..." 

That day, Salvation came to Zacchaeus. He was born again. He was renewed in Christ our Lord. 

Conclusion: There is a Zacchaeus hiding in us all wanting to come down. As we come to Church, as we receive any of the churches sacraments or put our faith into practice, that Zacchaeus comes down from the tree of hatred and anger, the tree of judgment and gossip and we become new in Christ and then Christ looks at us and says, "Salvation comes to you today and you are also child of Abraham". Amen.