The story is told about a little boy who saw an unused tomb in the cemetery. His mother explained to him that it was built by his aunt who will eventually be buried there. The little boy thought about this for a while. Before leaving the place, he had an insight and placed a sign on the empty tomb: “Coming soon!”
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In today’s Gospel (Lk. 19, 1-10), Jesus said to Zaccheus: “Today, salvation has come to this house!” Has salvation come to your house? Has salvation come to your very soul? For some, it has already come. For others, maybe it is already coming. And still for others, maybe it is coming soon. Whatever, salvation comes if we, like Zaccheus, come down from our sycamore tree and receive Jesus with joy.
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What is your sycamore tree that prevents you from really meeting Jesus? It is your tree of comfort, your tree of security, your tree of refuge. As long as we do not leave our comfort zones, and hold on to our worldly security and refuge, we cannot really meet our Lord. Perched high up on our sycamore trees, we begin to have false security. Up on our sycamore trees, we have a vantage point that gives us a false sense of power and safety. Up on our sycamore trees, we think we are in control. God is there, but He is often just taken for granted, or totally forgotten and neglected.
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No one stays up on a tree forever. Sooner or later, we, too, will eventually have to come down from our sycamore tree. Please don’t wait for the tree to be cut before you come down. Or don’t wait for the tree to be shaken vehemently to make you fall down in disgrace. The Lord invites you today: “Come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.”
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Notice how the Lord asked Zaccheus to come down quickly, and Zaccheus did so, quickly. Many of us tend to postpone or procrastinate on our conversion. Some of us spend a whole lifetime vacillating between being good and being bad, between being true and being false. Of course, conversion is a long process, and it is an ongoing thing, but it only takes a moment when one finally makes a fundamental option for God in one’s life. Have you made the option to live the rest of your life, the best of your life, for God?
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What if Zaccheus did not come down from the sycamore tree? Then salvation would not have come to his house. Then he would have missed his chance for change. Then he would have continued to stay up there in shame or in fear, or in regret. May we not fail to see the moments of grace given to us, and not fail to bend our knees when salvation is offered to us.
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All the recent developments involving the pork barrel issue is a call from our people for our politicians and government leaders to come down from their sycamore trees, walk the earth, and be with and truly serve our people. They should not wait for the people to cut down or shake their sycamore trees for them to come down.
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Pope Francis, by his words and deeds, is calling upon us, especially our Church leaders, to come down from our sycamore trees as well, and be truly present with our people, especially with the poor and marginalized, as well as the youth, and to dialogue with those of different creeds, codes and cults.
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Let us pray that Mother Nature will be more kind to our people as we move toward the Christmas season. Let us also pray that the Lord will spare us from more natural and political calamities and disasters in our land. May Christmas be beautiful for us, and may we make Christmas beautiful as well for other people this year.
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All too often, we focus on our problems and get too caught up in our situation so that we forget that there are others who have bigger problems, and who have more difficult situations. May we not forget, too, that God is bigger than our problems and that He is the Lord of every situation in which we find ourselves. One of the best ways of coming down is being humble toward others; another is going down on our knees in earnest prayer.
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Thought for the journey: “Forgive those who have wronged you, not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace.”
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Think about it: How many among us who visited the cemetery recently will be visited in the cemetery at about this time next year? Message: Come down from your sycamore tree and meet your God in joy and humility.
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Remember how we enjoyed climbing fruit trees when we were children, how we delighted in our freshly picked fruits, eating them to our hearts’ content? But that was not the only reason we climbed trees. When we were chased by dogs, we would find safety and refuge on a tree, on any tree. We grow older and we still climb all kinds of comfort trees and security trees. However, we know we have really grown when we finally realize that our real comfort, our real security, is only in God.
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A moment with the Lord:
Lord, help me to come down from my sycamore tree of comfort and security. Amen.