This weekend we celebrate a major holiday designed for kids – whether they are mere toddlers or parents who, remembering their own childhood, want to remain “young-at-heart.” Every year on the evening before All Saints Day, these parents help their kids go out in search of candy. They seek “treats: and recall the time when a lack of a good treat might turn into a trick.
This secular holiday of Halloween leads me to my question for today. It’s a question about children … and about parents. It’s this: what is the very first game that parents play with their children?
I have no factual reference for the answer. But it seems to me, that the very first game parents play with their babies is: “peek-a-boo.” Peek-a-boo … that game where adults hide their faces from the little ones in hope that the child will laugh and smile when mom or dad’s face suddenly is seen again. This first game, I think, probably leads to what might be the first major, true game played by children. How many of you, as a youngster, played the game of “hide-and-seek?” It’s a game that is probably found around the world; a game that started thousands of years ago.
As usual, my questions may be a puzzle to some of you. But I bet that some of you may have already made a connection between “hide-and-seek” and today’s gospel reading … which has much to do with hiding and seeking … and even more with seeing and finding.
Today we heard how a man by the name of Zacchaeus “… was seeking to see who Jesus was, but he could not see him because of the crowd.” We then learned that Zacchaeus was very short and had to climb a tree in order to see Jesus. What happened next?
Jesus looked up into the tree and saw Zacchaeus. The Lord and Master whom Zacchaeus wanted to see, was seen by him. The man seeking Jesus was asked to invite him into his home that evening. And what did the crowds see and do?
Today’s reading says: When [the crowds] saw this, they began to grumble, saying “He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.” The crowds saw a man they despised because of the work he did – the work of a tax collector in collaboration with the Roman occupiers. A man who took their money on behalf of the state and who probably kept a large part of it for his own use.
And what did Zacchaeus say? “Behold, [look here, see] … half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone, I shall repay it four times over.” In reply, Jesus said: “Today salvation has come to this house … For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.”
Yes, today’s gospel reading has much to say about “hiding” and “seeking”, about “seeing” and “finding.” Little Zacchaeus … “was seeking to see who Jesus was, but he could not see him because of the crowd.” Yes, he could not see Jesus “because of the crowd.” The real question to ponder today is: Do we seek Jesus but fail to see him because of the crowd standing between us?
And what is this crowd? Is it a mere gathering of people … or is it all of the “things” that stand between me and him?
● All of my secular concerns.
● All of my worldly desires.
● All of my own lack of self-esteem.
● All of my self-seen failures.
● All of my fears.
● All of my sins.
The Book of Wisdom, we heard in our first reading, reminds us that: “Before the Lord the whole universe …[is no more than] a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth.” Nevertheless, as insignificant as the entire universe might be, each of us is important in the eyes of the Lord. In addressing the Lord, the Book of Wisdom goes on to say: “For you love all things that are – and loathe nothing you have made, for what you hated, you would not have fashioned.”
In modern terms, we are reminded: “God does not make junk!” None of us are junk. We are the beloved children of God. So, just what is it that separates us from him? We seek him but do not see him. What must we do so that we can see him? What must I do to overcome the crowd of events which separate the two of us? What tree must I climb? What risks must I take? Just how far out on the limb must I go before I can see Jesus?
Fortunately, the work is not all mine to do alone. Once Zacchaeus undertook his risk to see Jesus, to find him … Jesus, himself, immediately saw Zacchaeus. Jesus found the one who was seeking him. Jesus, himself, desired that this man might invite him into his own house.
Jesus desires the same response from us … to be invited into our homes, into our hearts. He offers us the treats, the sweetness of the kingdom, itself. He has no “tricks” to give us in lieu of his love. Rather, in the concluding words of today’s gospel: “… the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.”
Yes, at times we may return to our childhood and play hide-and-seek with God. Rather than climbing the tree to see him more clearly, we hide behind it and wonder if God will find us. But there are also the times for peek-a-boo with him. Times for us to laugh and smile when we behold the suddenly revealed face of God.
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time; October 31, 2010 (Halloween)
Wis 11:22-12:2; 2 Thess 1:11-2:2; Lk 19:1-10