Seek and save ourselves and others

A young family was out at a nice restaurant for dinner and one of their little boys happened to find a bright shiny dime and was fascinated by it. He immediately put it in his mouth and started to choke on it. The parents became frantic and scared and yelled for help for their son.

A man came over from a nearby table, turned the boy upside down, gave him a few good swats and the dime flew out. The parents were so grateful, and asked the man, “Are you a doctor or a medical practitioner?” The man responded, “No. I work for the IRS!”

So it is as a church we are challenged, as we have just celebrated All Saints and All Souls Days at the start of this month of November, to know like Jesus we are called to seek out and strive with mercy and love to save all. We are all alive in Christ. We are the I.R.S. for Jesus.

As we begin this last month of our Church Year and have only 50 days left to this year 20l9, we must put ourselves in the shoes of Zacchaeus. We must be eager to see and work for Jesus. Zacchaeus even climbed a tree to see Jesus. That tree was a sycamore, just like in the front of St. Anthony’s. We may not need to climb a tree, but we may need some eye wash or heart cleansing to see, seek and reach out to another, as neighbor in Christ.

It is easy to feel lost at times, and we need to stop and pray that the words of St. Paul to the Thessalonians may be true for us: “May the name of Christ be glorified in you and you in Him.”

God always gives us space, and will be there to turn us upside down to get the bitterness, anger, jealousy or hatred out of us! On this National Vocation Day and Week, we are called to pray for young women to enter religious life and young men to enter the priesthood. So, many of our parish problems come from this lack of people giving full dedication to the Lord in a religious vocation.

Tuesday of this week is Election Day. No matter what your party or even if you don’t think your vote mattes, it does! Every vote counts in a democracy, and your rights are not freely given,

but given because you vote. Offer your opinion on issues and do not let the idea that it is someone else’s responsibility. You are the responsible party. That is what it means to seek and save a democracy. That is what it means to be willing to even climb a sycamore to see and act in a Christlike way.

A famous businessman was giving a speech to a group of rising young men and women. During this speech he kept giving the advice, “Jump at the opportunity.” After he said this four or five times, one woman in the audience stood up and said, “How do you recognize the opportunity?” To which the businessman replied, “You don’t. You just keep on jumping and one day you will find that you got it.”