31st Sunday

Autumn can chill our bones and warm our spirts.

We have just traversed All Saints/All Souls and are on our way toward Advent.

Today we encounter the little guy Zachaeus.

He climbs up a tree to glimpse Jesus passing by.

But Jesus does not pass him by!

Jesus is passing by for all of us.

Will we glimpse him or lose sight of him amid our current crowd?

Is he to be seen at all in our techno world which confines our sight to our smart phones?

Today's first reading is provocative for our times:

"For you love all things that are

and loathe nothing that you have made."

God loves creation and we seem hell bent in polluting it, climate warming it, and wounding it.

The Book of Wisdom chides our ignorng of today's reality by denying climate change.

Zachaeus climbed a TREE to see Jesus.

Sometimes we fail to see the forest for the trees.

And so we pray:

Give us the wisdom to glimpse your divine beauty

in the vibrant colors of the autumn trees.

Like Zachaeus who embraced a tree

so that he might see,

let us see the forest from the trees.

Amen