It is 17th November 2020. We celebrate the Memorial of St Elizabeth of Hungary, Religious.
The readings are from Revelation 3:1-6, 14-22; and the Gospel from Luke 19:1-10.
An unrepented life is an unrealistic life.
Repentance is all about listening, learning, and leaning. “If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.” (Rev.3:3). When we continue to live in our casual and usual sins, we do not listen to the Lord rather listening and bombarded by the self-destructive voice that misleads us and other. “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come into you and eat with you, and you with me.” (Rev. 3:20). It is possible that we may not hear the gentle knock of the Saviour while we are so busy with someone, a crucial and pleasurable relationship or work. Jesus knocks at doors of our existence every day. Unless we are familiar with the voice and the dabbing of the sound of Jesus, we may not listen to Him.
Whenever our spiritual life becomes indifferent, weak and lukewarm, we feel the distance between Jesus and us is huge and far apart. “I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” (Rev. 3:16).
The responsorial Verse praises, “The one who is victorious I will sit beside me on my throne.” (Rev.3:21).
Jesus expresses His desire to come into our lives in the Gospel. “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” (Lk.19:5). Just place your name instead of Zacchaeus, then it feels personal. In which tree are we on in our life? Everyone is hanging around or up on a tree of pleasure, money, profession, fun, power and so on. We need to come down, Jesus wants to stay with us in our homes, families and lives. Unless we repent, we cannot accommodate Jesus in our life. Let us not remain nominal Christian but phenomenal in our spiritual life. It is time to move from our complacency to constancy. By recognising and acknowledging our emptiness and poverty, we go after the riches of Christ. May you have a lovely day. God bless you.