Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, "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." And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. - Lk 19:8-9
Friends, God is good, all the time.
Today's gospel homes in one of the essential life questions: how much is enough for a person in life. All our days, we look forward to getting as much of anything in life as we can, including life itself. It seems that our human nature continually shares in the deep struggle about how to gauge what we can consider enough for us so that we can alley the fears that others are receiving or getting what should come to us.
However, as we meet Jesus and Zacchaeus today in the gospel, we notice that when Zacchaeus came face to face with Jesus, suddenly, he realizes that he gotten something far more than his protected riches could proffer. Jesus became the all-sufficient means to happiness for him, not possesses.
So, he announces his intention to give half of his possessions to the poor right off the bat, and he would identify those he had cheated to give back four-times what he took from them unjustly. He had understood that even after giving all the possessions away, what will be left would still be enough.
So then, what is it that makes life enough? It is Jesus and the salvation he offers. Enough is Jesus. Authentic believers understand and see their life to be enough regardless of their age; they count the amount of possessions they have enough, regardless of the dollar value. And this is so because they never cease to gauge life, possessions, happiness, and the like by the value they place on their relationship with Jesus instead of monetary value. The thing that sets true Christians apart is that most of the time, it is what Jesus values that they also value, and what Jesus is concerned about is their concern too.
Elizabeth of Hungary lived a brief life of 24 years. Yet to her and the church, that short span was enough because it was filled with good deeds for the poor. She yielded her possessions to the building of a hospital to attend to those who had nothing. If we really want to have enough of everything, let us not look anywhere for them; let us not go anywhere to get them but to Jesus. Meet Jesus truly and notice that indeed, you have more than enough. Prayer blessings: Let us learn and repeatedly say this short prayer to bless ourselves. Our help is in the name of the Lord…who made the heaven and earth.