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What brings people into the Church? What drives a person who is not Catholic to convert to Catholicism? I doubt it’s the result of a convincing argument. What brings someone who is Catholic but has stopped practicing the faith back to the Church? This last question, I can answer partially from my own experience.
As many people know, I did not practice the faith in my early adult life. It was not because I did not believe in God and Jesus Christ as my savior. There were a few reasons I did not go. I was too lazy. I did not care to associate myself with people who in my eyes at the time seemed to be too sanctimonious. But most of all, I stopped going to Church because I felt I did not need it. I still can hear my mom scolding me, “You should go back to church.” “Yeah right, ma, I will definitely think about it.”
What brought me back to church was a situation that I felt God had a hand in helping me through. After that, I felt that I needed to make some room in my life for God, and that compelled me to come back to the Church. I needed the Church to help me make room for God. My brother asked me at the time, “Why the Catholic Church; why not some other Christian denomination?” My answer simply was that it was all I knew. There was no theological reason. I found a parish that felt right, where I felt accepted despite my foibles, and started going. And then things started to make sense.
Drawing from my own experience, the reason someone comes back to the Church after being away for a while, or converts to Catholicism, more times than not, isn’t theological. Other elements need to be in place for someone to make the conversion, to follow the way of Christ.
I think today’s Gospel gives us a little insight into how this might happen. Zacchaeus is an interesting character; one many might identify with. He lived in Jericho, a wealthy town, a place where a lot of taxes could be collected. And Zacchaeus was a tax collector, a man who was at the top of his profession, and probably the most hated man in his district. While his profession made him wealthy, he probably was not happy and he probably was lonely because the same profession that made him wealthy made him an outcast. He had heard of this Jesus, who welcomed tax collectors and sinners, and he wanted to see him, to see if Jesus could provide him with any solace in the way he had led his life. Despised and hated by all, Zacchaeus was searching for the love of God.
Zacchaeus was now determined to see Jesus, and nothing would stop him, not even a large crowd. Jesus noticed Zaccheus high in a tree and called to him, saying he needed to stay with him. With the crowd observing with a jaundiced eye, Zacchaeus shows the community his conversion, that he was a changed man, pledging to be a good steward of his wealth by giving to the poor and ensuring he deals with people justly. Jesus assures him of salvation; that Jesus came to seek and to save what was lost.
When we think of the word “lost” in religious terms, we might think of the words “damned” and “doomed.” But the word “lost” simply means “in the wrong place.” When we find ourselves away from God, we are lost, in the wrong place, and we look to get to the right place. Jesus Christ finds us and puts us in the right place with God.
What brings people to the Church? I think many of us are like Zacchaeus, lost and looking to Jesus to put us in the right place. Some of us at one time might have been lethargic in practicing our faith or even somehow alienated from it. Then something happened that prompted us to stand up and take notice, such as a profound experience of God working in our lives. Or having brought a child into the world and wanting this child to learn about God. It might be reaching a point in life that brings us to search for answers that can be found only by having a relationship with God, or searching for a place that accepts us for who we are. For many of us, Zacchaeus represents the lonely in us, the outcast in us, the one in us who searches to be with God.
Father Beeson is pastor of St. Pius V in Cannon Falls and St. Joseph in Miesville.
Sunday, Oct. 30
Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
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