GO CLIMB A TREE
Tuesday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
My dear encountered couples:
Zacchaeus climbed that tree because “he was trying to see what Jesus was like.” And when he found out, he changed his ways. Do any of your ways need changing? That’s not always easy to know, is it? For we can become so accustomed to certain ways of living and thinking that we see nothing wrong with them. Maybe that is how we were brought up to believe, maybe that is what other people told us was the right thing to do. So, if our ways are wrong, we don’t see it.
It is very, very important that we find out what Jesus is really like. We must spend our entire lives trying to find out. Each day, hopefully, will bring us a new revelation, a new insight into him. You say you live with him wherever you are and wherever you go? That’s great. But it is possible to live with someone and have him tagging along with you everywhere while never really getting to know that person.
Getting used to someone’s presence can dull our attention and smother any new insights into his personality. We might never learn anymore about the people we live with than we learned of them years ago when we first started living together. I’ve met husbands and wives of many years who seem to have very little knowledge of one another. And how many parents and children really see each other as they are?
Zacchaeus wanted to see what Jesus was like. You already know something about him. But far from enough. Get to know Jesus - in the gospels, in your prayers, in the people around you, in his creatures and creation. As you get to know him more, you will change, and, like Zacchaeus, to the better.
