Just a word before we go...Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time...October 30, 2022

In our current culture of amassing material goods and disposing of them at a rapid pace, it is good to be reminded by our Wisdom reading of the principle of sacramentality...that all creation is holy and has the potential to mediate the divine to us.  All creation, meaning people, of course, but also trees and rivers and the moon and the stars...and art (just consider our labyrinth and our icons). 

We are to be the stewards of creation, and in that regard, Pope Francis has cautioned the church not to focus inward on itself, but to reach out to the world, to be of service to those in need, the poor and the marginalized, “to sow the seed of the Gospel by word and by witness.”

This outward focus is reflected in our Gospel, as Jesus calls out to Zacchaeus and invites himself to his home. Now,  Zacchaeus was not poor in a material sense, but was poor in quite another way.  Intrigued by the person of this Jesus, he would find any means of seeing him for himself, even to the extent of climbing a sycamore tree. In return, Jesus revealed to Zacchaeus his true identity as a son of Abraham, a child of God.

Jesus is always looking for an opportunity to connect, to call us to holiness.  We do not have to be short of stature, or capable of climbing a tree; we need only to show an interest.  God is waiting patiently to offer forgiveness, mercy and compassion, regardless of our particular type of poverty.

This week brings us the month of November, a season of remembering the saints and souls who have gone before us to God.  These have found their true identity and are poor no longer. They are part and parcel of our sacramental sensibility, and remain connected to us by our love and their participation in the Communion of Saints.

Please join us on Tuesday morning, November 1, at 9 am for All Saints Day Mass, and on Thursday evening, November 3, at 7 pm, when we will commemorate with Mass all our beloved dead, especially those parishioners who have died since last November. Let us honor their memory and remind ourselves that their lives have changed, not ended.