31st Sunday in Ordinary Time: Because He Loves Us

[readings]

Why does God love us? 

Is it because we're just such great people?
Did we do something so impressive that he just couldn't help himself?

The truth is that God loves us because that's who he is. God is love. From all eternity, the relationship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one never-ending act of love. And God made us to share in that love.

The first reading from the book of Wisdom says it so well. To God, the whole universe is nothing - it's a drop of dew in the morning. Compared to God, everything else is meaningless; but he gives it meaning. He gives us meaning.

The world and humanity are fundamentally good because God made them. God loves everything that he makes and he doesn't make anything that is bad.

But what about all that is wrong in the world: doesn't that make God change his mind? Wouldn't that make him give up on us?

If God we're just like us with love as strong, or rather, as weak as ours, maybe he would. But God is Love and that never changes. God's way of looking at us, his children, is with mercy. He desires for us to know his great love - every single one of us.

That love is put on display in today's reading from the Gospel of Luke. Once again, we hear about a tax collector - this one named Zacchaeus. This man has a desire to see Jesus, and the way he is treated by the crowd versus the way he is treated by Jesus shows us the difference between our attitude and God's.

Zacchaeus wants to see Jesus - and what does the crowd do? First, we can speculate, that the people wouldn't let him through. The gospel tells us that Zacchaeus was a short man. When the crowd sees this wealthy tax collector - a man who has almost definitely profited from oppressing them - trying to make his way to the front, we can imagine that they're not going to be too accommodating.

So Zacchaeus gets creative. He climbs up a tree and gets a good view of Jesus.

And Jesus goes right to him. "Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house."

Jesus didn't waste any time. He didn't ask, "Are you the right sort of person for me to associate with? Are you holy enough? Are you accepted by the people?" All he's concerned about is going to Zacchaeus and loving him.

This does not sit well with the crowd. They grumble about Jesus spending time with a sinner like this.

But Zacchaeus responds to the love he's encountered. He promises to make reparation for the wrongs that he's done. By coming face to face with Love Himself, Zacchaeus' heart is changed.

That's what the love of God aims to do. Jesus wasn't interested in being what the crowd thought was "fair" or courting the people who thought they deserved his attention more than this sinner. Jesus loves with the love of the Trinity - a love that has not partiality and sees no barriers. He simply reaches out to one of his lost sheep.

If that's how God loves, we have to ask ourselves seriously: do we ever act like the crowd in this story?

Do we block someone's way to Jesus because we think they're probably not good enough to get to him?
Do we grumble that great sinners have the same opportunity to embrace the love of God as we do?
Do we think, "I know I'm not perfect, but I'm not like those really bad people"?

The love of God demands that we see everyone with the same merciful vision as God does. Any time we're tempted to look down on someone or think that someone is beyond hope of redemption, we must remember: God loves this sinner - me - just as much as all the other sinners in the world.

That kind of love is a true challenge. Ask yourself, "Can I hope that even the people who have sinned against me will come to know the love of God and change their lives?"

God made us and sustains us because he loves us - all of us. If we want to be like him and be with him forever, then we have to decide, today, that we are going to love like he does.