Seeking Jesus, and being sought by Him

Today's gospel: Luke 19:1-10

The story of Zacchaeus that we have in today's gospel is another one of those only found in Luke. I would like to reflect with you for a minute on two short verses in the passage. In verse 3, we read, "And he (Zacchaeus) sought (was seeking) to see who Jesus is, ..." In the New Testament, there are 3 verbs used for the word, "to see". One ("blepo") means simply to see something with your eyes, whereas the other two verbs and their various forms also indicate a type of perception that goes beyond the mere reality of visible sight. Luke uses one of these 2 verbs here. Therefore, Zacchaeus didn't just want to see Jesus for the mere fact of being able to say, "I saw an important person!", but rather he wanted to get to know Jesus personally. That is what each one of us is called to do daily... to get to know ("see") Jesus better every day. We can ask ourselves, "To what pains do I go through to see Jesus active in my day-to-day life? How much time do I spend each day meditating on his Word? How many times a day do I ask Him what I should do at a particularly difficult moment?" We should be able to say with the Greeks in John's gospel (12:21), "We want to see Jesus!" (Again, same verb in Greek used here!)

At the end of the gospel, we have the verb "to seek" again, which was the same as in verse 3. "The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." Even when we sin and God is furthest from our minds and hearts, He is still there seeking us out. May we long to see and search for God everyday of our lives. As the psalmist says, "As the deer that yearns for running streams, so my soul yearns for you, my God."

Today is the last day of October, the month dedicated to Our Lady of the rosary. Below is a video I found with many beautiful images and icons of Our Lady, accompanied by the Ave Maria. Enjoy!