Zacchaeus, the little tax collector of today’s Gospel was lost. He was rejected by his own people for cashing in on the Roman occupation and collecting taxes for the enemy, keeping an ample amount for himself. He hid behind his riches. But he was a lost soul. And then one day he heard a crowd coming. They were there to greet this Jesus, this Messiah. Zacchaeus was initially nothing more than curious. He climbed a tree to get a glimpse of the great man. But then Jesus stopped under the tree and called him. The Good Shepherd found the lost sheep and Zacchaeus was lost no longer. Jesus had found him, and he responded. He now found himself in Jesus Christ. Perhaps some of us have had times that we have been lost. We go to Church every week, and that is a very good thing. But sometimes we are just going through the motions. We stand and sit and kneel and sing. The hardest times for us are often the quiet times. That is a sure sign that something is very wrong. It is hard to hide non Christian behavior when it is only ourselves and the Lord. Those are the times when our consciences are telling us: I’m lost. Maybe, I shouldn’t even be here. But we are here. We are in Church. Perhaps when we walked through the doors of the Church we have taken the first step to see who this Jesus is. Walking through the doors of the Church is, for many, like climbing the sycamore tree to get a glimpse of Jesus. We certainly don’t expect Jesus to single us out from the crowd of worshipers. But he does. He stands under the tree that every single person has climbed in his life, the tree that many of us are still looking down from, and he says, «Judy, Frank, Shirley, Bill, Agustin, Zacchaeus, come down from there. I want to stay in your house tonight and from now on.» Now, we are faced with what is really an easy decision: do we want Him in our house, in our soul? It is going to cost us. We are going to have to abandon that which has no place in our house, in our lives. But it is an easy decision. Nothing can surpass the all encompassing joy of having the Lord in our lives. We may have been lost in a crowd. But he searched for us and called to us, by name. And we responded. And we have found ourselves in Jesus Christ. This is simply an amazing Grace! • AE

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Fr. Agustin Schedule for the Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

Saturday, October 29, 2022.

2.30 p.m. Sacrament of Matrimony Ramirez-Flores

3.30 p.m. Sacrament of Reconciliation

5.00 p.m. Holy Mass (English)

Sunday, October 30, 2022.

7.30 a.m. Holy Mass (English)

10.00 a.m. Holy Mass (English)

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XXXI Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario (Ciclo C)

El evangelio no se puede transmitir de cualquier forma. Jesús lo hacía con un estilo inconfundible. La escena del evangelio de este domingo, el XXXI del Tiempo Ordinario es un ejemplo maravilloso. Zaqueo es un tipo al que todos juzgan sin piedad: es un pecador, per para Jesús es sencillamente una persona que anda perdida y justo por eso lo busca con su mirada, le llama por su nombre y le ofrece su amistad personal: comerá en su casa, le escuchará, podrán dialogar. Acogido, respetado y comprendido por Jesús, aquel hombre decide reorientar su vida. La actuación de Jesús es sorprendente. Nadie veía en él al representante de la Ley, sino al profeta compasivo que acogía a todos con el amor entrañable del mismo Dios. No parecía preocupado por la moral, sino por el sufrimiento concreto de cada persona. No se le veía obsesionado por defender su doctrina, sino atento a quien no acertaba a vivir de manera sana. No caminaba por Galilea en actitud de conquista. No imponía ni presionaba. Se ofrecía, invitaba, proponía un camino de vida sana. Sabía que la semilla podía caer en terreno hostil y su mensaje ser rechazado. No se sentía agraviado. Seguía sembrando con la misma actitud de Dios que envía la lluvia y hace salir su sol sobre todos sus hijos, sin importar si son buenos y malos. ¿A dónde con todo esto? A una idea sencilla pero compleja: Ya no podremos ser una Iglesia poderosa, segura y autoritaria, que pretende imponerse a todos. Quizá somos una Iglesia más sencilla, vulnerable y débil. Esa Iglesia deshilachada de la que tanto nos ha hablado el Santo Padre Francisco. No tendriamos que preocupamos de defender nuestro prestigio y poder sino volvernos más humanos y tratar de sintonizar mejor con los que sufren #conexión Así, estaríamos en mejores condiciones para comunicar el Evangelio. Es inútil endurecer nuestra predicación e intensificar nuestros lamentos y condenas, viviendo de puros «anatema sit!». En menos palabras: tendríamos que aprender de Jesús a conjugar tres verbos decisivos: acoger escuchar y acompañar, y así descubrir que el Evangelio lo comunican los creyentes en cuya vida resplandece el amor compasivo de Dios. Sin esto, todo lo demás es inútil. Infecundo. Y muy triste • AE

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