Delivered by Melinda from the Church of Saint Marinus Yohanes in the Diocese of Surabaya, Indonesia. 2 Maccabees 6: 18-31; Rs psalm 3: 2-3.4-5.6-7; Luke 19: 1-10.

GOD COMES INTOOUR HEARTS AND HOUSES

Our meditationtoday is the entitled: God Comes into Our Hearts and Houses. Many peopleacknowledge that phone calls to personal cell phones that only appear innumbers but have no photo identity and name are better ignored. A common reasongiven is that the caller is a stranger. There are various prejudices that areimposed on strangers, for example callers who have no identity, guests whosuddenly arrive without prior notice, and people who get lost and come to us.

Let us imaginefor a moment, if the stranger happened to be the Lord Jesus. Our reaction mightbe the same as we did with other strangers. But because the Lord Jesus wants tobring good news to us, He certainly gives some special signs, so that we canknow him. As happened with Zacchaeus, the Lord was the first to give thesignal. The sign began with news of him entering the city and walking throughthe city. Furthermore, through all his movements, greetings and words, peoplebecame interested and began to come to him.

He toldZacchaeus in the city of Jericho that he would come to the house of that richtax collector and great sinner. Once he came there, both the person of thesinner and his home were sanctified. There was salvation happening in the lifeof Zacchaeus. Mary was visited by the Holy Spirit and made her Mother of God.We are also visited by divine grace through our birth on earth, towards a newbirth in faith when we were baptized in the house of God, the Church. It is thefamily, culture and society all together offer a human child to God.

Through thatbaptism, we ourselves become the legitimate house of God. Our families fromevery house that each of us belong to, come together to make the house of God.Every person and families are then bound to the Church which is a communion ofone body with Jesus Christ as the head. Every time we gather and worship God inthe Church, it is a moment of communion of a whole, one, and universal house ofGod. After that worshiping moment, we return to our respective houses with alldaily routines always in that sense of the community of believers.

If we fallinto sins for a variety of reasons, both grave and venial, many or few, thecommunion of the Church becomes disrupted and even injured. Jesus must havepity on us and put His power to improve this by visiting both ourselves and ourfamilies. The important thing is we are open and accept Him coming intoourselves and our families.

Let's pray. In the name of the Father ... Lord Jesus,come and stay in me, and fill me with your peace, your presence and allgoodness. Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit ... In thename of the Father ...