Gospel Reflection - Do You and I Really Want to See Jesus?

[Recycling an earlier post]

In today's Gospel, we find the hated tax collector Zacchaeus doing everything he could in order to see this Jesus of whom he had heard, including climbing up onto a tree. He did not care what people thought of him. He wanted to see Jesus and nothing and no one were going to stop him.
 

He probably did not expect that Jesus would actually look up, see him perched in the tree, speak to him, and then ask to stay at his home that very day. Jesus too was unconcerned about what his Jewish brethren would think of His entering the home of such a public and despised sinner.  Jesus came to save all of us sinners, including this despised tax collector. Zacchaeus not only saw Jesus, he allowed Jesus to change him forever. 

What about me? What about you? Do you and I really want to see Jesus? 

Before answering those questions, read and ponder the words of our beloved Saint John Paul II, which the author of In Conversation with God included in his reflection for today:  

“Do I want 'to see Christ'? Do I do everything 'to see him'? This question, two thousand years later, is as relevant as it was then, when Jesus passed through the cities and villages of his land. It is a relevant question for each of us personally today: Do I want to? Do I really want to? Or do I perhaps rather avoid the encounter with Him? Do I prefer not to see Him and do I prefer Him not to see me (at least in my way of thinking and feeling)? And if I already see Him in some way, then do I prefer to see Him from afar, not drawing too near, not venturing before Him so as not to perceive too much... so as not to have to accept the whole truth that is in Him, that comes from Him – from Christ?” 

(Saint John Paul II, Address, November 2, 1980)