In one of the great Gospel passages, we hear about the call of Zacchaeus. The evangelist tells us that Jesus intends to pass through the town of Jericho without any real plan of doing anything. However, we soon see that everything has its own purpose and that there really are no accidents. While he is passing through, a man named Zaccheus gets the urge to see Jesus. For some reason, we do not know why, his desire is so strong that he is willing to put his life on the line and go out on a limb just to see Jesus. Jesus, though walking through the midst of a great crowd, easily picks out Zaccheus and calls him out of the tree and tells them He will stay at His house. This turns out to be a life changing event, and Zaccheus’ conversion begins.
Here we a great insight on the call to the diocesan priesthood. While not all priests intended to be priests, God singled them out and called them where they were. Some of us called may be busy in our own lives and just passing through life. Time flies by us and we don’t realize it. However, Jesus is there to call us. Like Zaccheus, all of us are unworthy of the priesthood. However, God does not call the qualified; God qualifies the called. We need to see in Zaccheus what we ourselves look like. We are imperfect and in the spirit of the New Evangelization, we are in need of constant conversion.
In this Gospel passage, Christ is seen as the model priest. Priests are called to search out for the one lost sheep, and in this case, the lost sheep was sticking out in the middle of a crowd, but nobody noticed him except Jesus. Jesus calls this man and comes into his house where Zaccheus is brought to the realization of all the wrong he has done and freely offers to make up for it. A priest is able to help recognize our sins and then reconcile us with God. He helps us allow Jesus into our own house/hearts and gives us penance to make up for all the sins we have committed.
Many people look at the times we are in, and see how the Church seems to be in trouble both financially and spiritually. This persuades many men to shy away from their calling and choose a life that seems to be more acceptable to society. If we look at the Gospel though, “the Son of Man has come to seek and save what was lost.” We need good men to help bring back those we have lost to these troubled times.
I ask those who have ever thought about the priesthood to come down from the tree you are in and talk to your parish priest or our vocation director about it. The decision to enter the seminary is not an easy one, and nobody should do it alone. We must listen to God’s call. As the evangelist points out, Zaccheus did not stop and think about the question; he trusted in the Lord and did what he asked. Please pray that whatever is crowding our hearts will be removed and we will be able to see Jesus like He sees us.
Father Adam Cichoski
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