November, 3-4 , 2007
31 Sunday in Ordinary Time

This Sunday's Gospel presents an incident with a real life tax collector, a short man named Zacchaeus.Of all the people the Lord could have chosen to spend the night with, he chose this tax collector, this betrayer of the Jewish people, this thief, this sinner.people around Jesus could not believe that Jesus would want to stay with Zacchaeus."Certainly, if Jesus were a prophet he would know the sort of man that he was going to stay with."But Jesus did know Zacchaeus.He knew Zacchaeus was a sinner. But he also knew that Zacchaeus could change his ways.

Zacchaeus had an experience of the Lord's presence in his own house. For Zacchaeus everything had to change now.God had come under his roof."Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone, I shall repay it four times over."

Zacchaeus did change his life in a radical way because "God entered under the roof of his house". I invite Jesus Christ to enter my life at every Eucharist, but … do I also change radically my life at every Eucharist?

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Letter of the Bishops of Alberta for Catholic Education Sunday