“A person with a kind heart”

33^rd Week  (Lk 19:2-4)

I.Story: “You”re good, not bad”

-          An 8-year old boy killed his father and mother.  The police didn’t know what to do with him.  He was a child so they couldn’t arrest and send him to a reform school, because he had to be at least 12 years for that. 

-          They called Fr. Flanagan and asked, “Will you accept this kid?”  The priest answered, “Of course, send him over!”

-          The boy went to Boys Town and Fr. Flanagan asked his name and he said, “David, sir.” Then Fr. Flanagan said, “Dave! Welcome to the Boys Town. We’ve been expecting you! Now that you are here - you must want to take a walk to become familiar with everything.  You know that everyone works for a living here?  Perhaps you can choose an occupation, but for now take it easy, take a look around the place.  You can go now.  I’ll see you later.” 

-          The boy narrated that those few seconds changed his life.  He said, “For the first time in my life, I looked in the eyes of a man who, without using words, said not that he loved me, but “You are good, you’re not bad, you’re good.”  

-          The boy became good.  People often asked Fr. Flanagan the reason for his success.  He didn’t answer this question because the principle that he followed was, “There’s no such thing as bad boy.”  He saw the goodness and made that goodness spring out of each boy that he took in (as cited by Anthony De Mello, 1998)

II.In today’s Gospel, Zacchaeus was a wealthy but a lonely man because he was an outcast.  As a tax collector, he was branded as a sinner ,and despised and hated by all. 

-          But Jesus treated Zacchaeus differently.  “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for I must stay at your house today”.  This gesture made Zacchaeus feel like David in our story. Someone’s telling him for the first time, “You are good, you’re not bad, you’re good.” 

-          The compassion he received from Jesus made him a changed man and to prove it, he decided to give half of his possessions to the poor and promised to pay four times over if he had extorted anything from anyone.

III.God created all of us good.  But there are many people who would rather see the bad in us.  They criticize us, look down at us, blame us, accuse us, make us feel worthless, and teach us to hate ourselves for what we are. 

-          Nagkakaruon tuloy tayo ng “self-rejection” at dahil ang tingin natin sa sarili ay masama,  we start to act badly.

-          We become lonely because that is not what we are.  Deep within us, we still want to believe that we are good.  Yet what we hear are voices that accuse us and brand us as bad.  What we hope to hear is someone to affirm us and tell us, “You are good, you’re not bad, you’re good.” 

-          Like Zacchaeus, , we can discover a friend in Jesus.  A friend who knows everything about us and still accepts us. A friend who would not blame, criticize or accuse us but give us the compassion and love that we long for. 

-          Remember, that one of the deepest needs of the human heart is to be accepted, to be loved and to be cared for. And Jesus would like to stay in our hearts to tell us, “You are good, you’re not bad, you’re good.”

-          He has hope in us because He sees our goodness and He will help us to see it so that we can become changed persons.  We can be what God wants us to be – a person with a kind heart.