RENUNGAN MINGGUAN – 30 Oktober 2022
Reflection for 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C: 29th & 30th Oct 2022
First Reading: Wisdom 11:22–12:2
Second Reading: 2 Thessalonians 1:11–2:2
Gospel Reading: Luke 19:1-10
The 1st Reading demonstrated that Jesus being the fulfillment of the Old Testament in the Book of Wisdom who was portrayed as a merciful, loving all that God has created. He is patient and longing for our return to Him, through repentance for our sins. Jesus shown compassion in all His works of mercy and forgiveness, always the element of God’s love presence.
The 2nd Reading of St Paul’s letter to Thessalonians stated that our prayers for the worthiness to fulfill the calling of God to do His will to remain faithful and the faith to undertake the work of spreading the Good News to all, has been graciously given by God through Jesus Christ. By these, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ will be glorified in you and you in Him, for Christ is living in our midst.
The Gospel reading can be summed up as encountering the mercifulness, forgiveness and love of Lord Jesus. We learned about Zacchaeus who is his state as being senior tax collector, wealthy but short in stature was curious and eager to know more about Jesus. There was a sense of desire for fulfillment in his anxious state to even catch a glimpse of Jesus. Our Lord Jesus stopped exactly the spot where Zacchaeus was up on a sycamore tree. He called Zacchaeus to come down and further said, ‘Hurry, because I must stay at your house today.’ How did Zacchaeus responded? He was all joyful, made a resolution to give half his property to the poor, and repaid four times the amount to those he had cheated. This encounter demonstrated the strong desire of Zacchaeus to seek Jesus, probably it was God’s call for him to repent of his wrongdoing, and to come back to the Lord. Because of Zacchaeus desire to meet Jesus and to get to know more about Him were fulfilled through Jesus’ demonstration of mercifulness, forgiveness, unjudgmental compassion and love, these has caused Zacchaeus to response with full repentance. For salvation has come to him and his family.
Do we often feel the desire the seek the face of Jesus, just as Zacchaeus did? Do we recall our first encounter the love of Jesus Christ, be it personal or reflecting why He died on the Cross while we were still sinners? Let us rediscover our first encounter with God by reflecting Him fully.
God has never abandoned us but always calling us to come back to Him. It is through our Lord Jesus Christ, we are again able to be called the children of God. The Lord Jesus has always been in our midst in our everyday lives struggle to stay afloat in our faith and calling to be good living Christian especially when we are drown with the values according to the world standard.
We are invited today to stay resilient in this call. Should we fall, we can always seek God’s healing through the sacrament of reconciliation. Let us never give up the call to follow Jesus faithfully and have God’s commandments written in our hearts. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Amen
Contributed by:
Bro Fredie
