By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

Zacchaeus and divine mercy

THE story of Zacchaeus in the gospel (cfr. Lk 19,1-10) gives us the precious lesson that despite our sinfulness we should never hesitate to go to God, asking for mercy and willing to do atonement and reparation for whatever damage our sins may cause.

We should feel reassured that God would be most welcoming to us and, in fact, would be most happy to have us back with him. We should never be afraid nor ashamed to return to him. We obviously would have some kind of fear to go to him, but we should overcome it as quickly as possible.

The story of Zacchaeus also shows us that despite the sinfulness of man, there is always in his heart of hearts a natural attraction to God, albeit often diluted with negative elements. Again, we should just try our best to overcome those elements and let that natural attraction dominate.

We should be quick to acknowledge our sinfulness and everything related to it so that, at least, we can start asking for forgiveness and developing the corresponding proper attitudes and virtues.

There is no use denying this obvious fact of life. As St. Paul quoted the Scriptures: “No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God…For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” (Rom 3,10-11.23) St. John reiterated the same point in his first letter: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1,8)

The sad fact that we have today is that many people are losing and have lost the sense of sin. Any idea they have about sin is strictly limited to their own very subjective view of what is bad and wrong. And this usually has no, or hardly any, relation to the articulated will and commandments of God. We have to correct this danger and learn to have a living relationship with God, unafraid to approach him.

Just the same, we should see to it that God’s mercy should not spoil us. Our Christian faith tells us that God’s love for us is eternal. It’s a love that goes all the way to showing mercy for us in the form of his Son becoming man and taking up all the sins of men by dying on the cross. No greater love can there be other than this love of God for us.

St. Paul drives home this point when he said in his Letter to the Romans: “He that spared not even his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how has he not also, with him, given us all things?” (8,32)

That’s why, in spite of our proclivity to sin and make a mess of our own lives, we can always have reason to be hopeful, because God never gives up on us. The problem is that we can give up on him and go our own desperate ways which we try to sweeten with all sorts of defense mechanisms.

We just have to make sure that we do not get spoiled by that love, because even if God’s love and mercy is eternal, his justice is never sacrificed. His mercy and justice always go together, in proportions, if we have to speak in human terms, that are just right.