Christ’s desire is to change the people’s life through His kindness, not through punishments and reproving

Church of Romania

On 26 January 2014, the Sunday after Pentecost, the Gospel fragment relating our Saviour’s encounter with Zacchaeus, the tax collector was read in all churches.

His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church delivered a sermon in the chapel of the Patriarchal Residence dedicated to Saint Gregory the Enlightener in which he showed the teaching of the Evangelical pericope (Luke 19:1-10) scheduled to be read today: “The Gospel shows us three great truths. First of all, Christ, our Lord, knows the soul of the humans and heals the spiritual and physical passions. Secondly, He looks for the sinner and wants every human to be saved irrespective of the public opinion on every person. Thirdly, we see that when He shows kindness to the humans, Christ, our Saviour, wants them to be kind too. When the people ask for this mercy too, a change in their life appears as well, namely changing from selfish into merciful people.”

The divine grace woke up the desire of changing into the soul of the bad greedy Zacchaeus

Then, the Patriarch of Romania showed that Zacchaeus had a secret desire in his soul to change his life: “Zacchaeus had gathered much wealth unjustly, oppressing other people. He had noticed of late that the great fortune he had gathered unjustly from those around him did not bring him the peace of his soul and happiness, that he was not as happy as he thought he would be before being rich. He began to realize that happiness did not come so much from outside, as from the man’s inside, from the peace and joy he had in his soul. This is why Zacchaeus wanted from the bottom of his heart to meet Jesus not only because He was a personality of the time so that he was curious, but also because he had a deep desire to change in his soul, and he knew that Jesus of Nazareth had healed lots of sick people, raised lots of sinners fallen into sins, changed lives and healed souls. Although at first sight his desire to meet Jesus seems curiosity, in reality he had a deep desire of changing his life. This secret desire of his soul to change his life was known to Jesus, our Lord, the Teacher and Healer. This is why when He reached the tree where Zacchaeus had climbed, Jesus called him by name expressing His desire to go to his house. This attempt of Zacchaeus to meet Jesus makes Jesus’ coming to Jericho and meeting with Zacchaeus be an attempt too. In other words, not only Zacchaeus wanted to meet Jesus, but Jesus also wanted to meet Zacchaeus. This is why the end of the Gospel of the day reads in the end: “The Son of man came to seek out and to save the lost”. The divine grace woke up in the soul of the bad greedy Zacchaeus the desire of changing, so that when he met Jesus whom he was seeking, Jesus showed that He was also seeking for Zacchaeus, because it was Christ’s grace that urged Zacchaeus to come to Him. Thus, Zacchaeus was coming to Jesus who was coming to Zacchaeus”.

This Gospel fragment deals with the recuperation of the sinful man, with the seeking out and saving the lost

To end with his sermon, His Beatitude Daniel underlined the urge of the evangelical pericope of the day to change our life by feeling the kindness of God, His mercy and holiness: “The Gospel shows us that even if a man is sinful when he has a little faith in God thinking that God can change, help or save him, the change is made on the basis of his faith, seeking for God, meeting with Him and of his invitation to the house of the sinful man, namely to his soul and life. This Gospel fragment deals with the recuperation of the sinful man, with the seeking out and saving the lost. When is man lost? It is when he breaks his relationship of love with God and his fellow beings. When is he found or recuperated? It is whenever he goes back to God and makes merciful deeds to his fellow beings who need his help and especially when he makes up for what he did wrong. Thus, the Gospel urges us to change us our life not because God will punish us, but feeling His great kindness, mercy and holiness, to change our life so as His kindness be always working in us through prayer and good deeds.”

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