GLORIOUS SILENCE - A WAIT TO WAIL

It has been a great blessing for me to know in the person of HG Gee Varghese Mar Ivanios of blessed memory.  During his life time, a collection of Thirumeni's homilies were shared in the form of a short book by Mar Baselios Dayara (Monastery) in Malayalam 'Maunathinte Lavaniyam' -' Glorious Silence'.

Jeev Jacob and Christie Ann Ninan, from UAE were kind enough to help translating this chapter. May Thirumeni's words encourage and his prayers continue to guide us to know the will of God in our lives.

A WAIT TO WAIL

The Gospel of St. Luke Chapter 19 begins with the tale of the transformation of Zacchaeus – the tax collector. His encounter with Jesus was not a coincidence. The Holy Bible reveals that when Zacchaeus heard about Jesus he had the desire to meet Him.

The desire to meet the Lord can mean a wait of faith and vigil.

Zacchaeus was a wealthy tax collector who knew that the massive wealth he had, was inappropriately acquired. When man is immersed in sin for a long time, he ends up feeling sick of it and will be led to repent. Fanatics may however not repent because they perceive themselves to be on pedestals in their religious lives. They are religion oriented; they tend to be admirers of the self and like giving advice (solicited or unsolicited) to people. It was probably around the time when Zacchaeus was disgusted with his way of life that he had heard about Jesus. And when he learnt that Jesus was visiting Jericho he wanted to see who Jesus was. His wait for Jesus was characterized by the following:

I.An inner desire and faith to see Jesus

II.A realization of his shortcomings, and,

III.The determination to untangle the mess he was in.

Zacchaeus did not permit his height come in the way of him seeing Jesus. He ran and ascended the sycamore-fig tree and would eventually leave behind his sinful past.

If we desire to see Jesus, He will see us. And when He sees us He will not simply look at us but will call each one of us, by name. Zacchaeus knew that Jesus could lift him out of disappointment. But there were some obstacles that he would first have had to overcome. Since Zacchaeus was a short man, he was initially unable to see Jesus who was surrounded by a mob. In our lives too we will have to overcome some obstacles to meet Jesus. Unless we are filled with a desire so intense, we may not be able to see Him. 

When Jesus spotted Zacchaeus on the sycamore-fig tree, He told Zacchaeus to come down and that He would visit his house. The Scriptures testify that Zacchaeus gladly welcomed Jesus.

With deep faith, any obstacle can be overcome.

Zacchaeus was led to an unexpected encounter and experience with Jesus. His feeling of being overjoyed at Jesus’s visit was met with an unhappy mutter among the crowd that was angry to see Jesus visit the house of a big sinner among them. 

When Jesus entered Zacchaeus’s home, he did not make a speech. Jesus’s presence filled Zacchaeus’s home and heart so much that Zacchaeus involuntarily confessed to Jesus and immediately left his sinful life. This is repentance. 

With Jesus by his side, Zacchaeus, who at one point was bewildered at the amount of wealth he had amassed, now learnt to handle such wealth. He realized the Christian way of managing one’s finances. Zacchaeus decided that he would help the poor and return to those he had collected money from, four times the amount.

In Philippians 3:7-11, St. Paul reminds us, “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things loss for the excellence of knowledge of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ. And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made comfortable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”

Faith is an intense desire to attain the resurrected Christ by any means. It is a life of faith that reforms our attitude towards wealth. Zacchaeus’s life became meaningful by his race of faith to the tree and his wait of faith while atop it. With a prayerful wait, faith is built.

Godless labour is a sin and anything that drives us away from God is evil. Salvation draws us closer to God. We must grow to the fullness of salvation. A sinful man’s talk, walk and ways are evil but when he turns to God, his ways will change. Zacchaeus had grown rich without God. When he came to his senses, while in the presence of Jesus, he must have burst into tears. 
His tears of repentance identified himself with the paternal heritage of Abraham – a heritage of intense faith, immediate repentance, complete salvation and a lifetime of sanctification.

Let us not tarry anymore but run and ascend the tree of faith as we observe a vigil to receive the Christ. In that period of waiting, as our sins become obvious to us, let us cry out to Jesus who came to seek and save the lost.