A life changing moment occurred in Jericho. The occasion was the time when Jesus was passing through the town. There was a man there who had heard about the young preacher who was teaching some new ways of living and relating to God. Although short in stature, the man was tall in civic status and deep in ill-earned wealth. There was something about the preacher's message that grabbed hi interest.
It is always interesting to watch the movement of Holy Spirit grace in the lives of people who dealt with Jesus. Obviously the head of the IRS of the times found an itch in his mind and heart. This time it was not for more money. This new way of understanding God had tickled his interest. Little did he know how the preacher would capture his heart.
Consider how the young preacher's way of bring Zacchaeus into the new way comes about through an invitation that was perceived as a scandal. That the "man of the cloth" would invite himself to the house of a public figure whose practices, whose positions, seemed to earn him a sinner's reputation.
In just a few words Luke described Zacchaeus' metanoia: He will turn from his ways of evil by giving half of his possessions to the poor and giving back from his wealth quadruple what he had extorted from the people. As the words in the Book of Revelation state: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me."
Into each of our lives there comes the moment when Holy Spirit grace will tickle a part of who we are --- perhaps more often than we are accustomed to recognize. However, when someone or an event happens surfaces from the inner me, a felt desire to know more about what is causing the inner soul's itching, it is so often Jesus knocking at the door, inviting us to dine with him.
Recently, when a number of Bishops and Pastors were heaping accusations of murderer on one of the presidential candidates, our Holy Father took the occasion of that candidate's election to the Presidency to telephone his personal best wishes and promise of prayers for the future. In a gentle, non-combative manner, was the Pope not inviting the President-elect to consider an invitation to dine? Was he not Jesus knocking at the newly elected presidential candidate's door, seeking the opportunity to speak, to dine together?
