Listen to these words from the Book of Wisdom which we heard in the first reading. “For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned.” Listen to them again. “For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned.” Do you believe them? Do you believe that God loves you so greatly? Do you believe that God loves you so tremendously much? It matters not if we are not perfect. God doesn’t require us to be perfect in order to love us. God loves us just as we are. These words essentially say that God does not make junk. God does not create evil, God only creates good. The fact that God created us says that we are good. I find that incredibly comforting and reassuring. What God is asking of us is to fully become that which he created. In other words, we could be even better.
I know we have some educators numbered among us today. As a former educator, it was my intention to pull from each student their greatest potential. I didn’t want my students to slack off and to just get by. I wanted them to excel to the fullest of what they could do. I believe that that is the intention of all educators, to challenge, cajole, and to pull the best they can from their students. This is what God wants from us as well. God wants us to live fully the person he created us to be.
This is what the Gospel story is illustrating for us. Zacchaeus, is a tax collector. Many Jewish people considered him a traitor because he was collecting taxes for the Romans, their enemies. On top of that, Zacchaeus was also over taxing the people and keeping the extra money for himself. He heard that Jesus was passing through town and wanted to catch a glimpse of him. Because he was so short, he decided to climb a tree in order to get a better look at Jesus. So here is Zacchaeus perched in a tree like a bird as Jesus walks below him. Jesus looks up and tells Zacchaeus that he is going to be spending time at his house.
As crooked as Zacchaeus might have been, Jesus did not look upon Zacchaeus as a traitor, or as cheat and a scoundrel as did the others in Zacchaeus’ community. Jesus looked up and saw a child of God who wasn’t living up to his full potential as a child of God. In the words and in the eyes of Jesus, Zacchaeus was stirred to become a better person, to live more fully his human vocation as a child of God. He climbs down from the tree and tells Jesus that he will give half of his fortune to the poor. And, to anyone whom he had cheated, he would repay them four times the amount he cheated them. What Zacchaeus was experiencing was what we call a conversion.
Conversion means to change. We use that word in many different ways. If we go to a foreign country we convert our money into the money of the country we are visiting. We convert inches and feet into centimeters and meters. Spiritually, we are called to change ourselves, to convert our way of living right now into becoming the person God created us to be.
This conversion is not a one time occurrence it is something that happens over and over again in our lives. It is something that we want to experience daily. Some days will be very good, and other days, not so good. The wonderful thing about conversion is that there is always another day in which we can change our lives for the better.
And what is the ultimate upside to conversion? It is what St. Paul expresses in his letter to the Thessalonians. He writes so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in us, and we in him.
We always must work on our own personal conversion so that when people see us and visit with us they encounter in us the glory of Jesus Christ. Living a lifetime of conversion, we will lead us to that for which we were ultimately created to become, the living and breathing incarnation of Jesus to our world.
