We have all got our own personal images of God, who God is, what God is like, how God acts. There are some (I hope not in the Church today.) who would see God as an accountant. And He is sitting in front of his computer all day, entering in all of our sins. And then, when we die, He presses the print button, and out comes these reams and reams and reams of stuff.

Well, obviously, that's a rather grotesque image, and all the more grotesque because it is so utterly false. I don't know where those kinds of images come from. They do not come from the New Testament. And they certainly don't come from the Book of Wisdom, from which we read only a few moments ago. And may I remind you of the words: "You have mercy on all because You can do all things, and You overlook the sins of people that they may repent, for You love all things that are and loathe nothing that You have made. You spare all things because they are Yours, O Lord and Lover of souls."

There are many names for God. Jesus called God "Abba." Jews call God "Yahweh." Muslims call God "Allah." Hindus call God "Krishna." If we are looking for a name for God, I can suggest nothing better than this: "Lover of souls." Isn't it wonderful, from the Book of Wisdom, wonderful name for God!.... "Lover of souls." Yes, in this understanding, God is the great lover of life. God deals with sinners not from a spirit of vengeance, but from a spirit of love. He overlooks sin so that people may repent.... Notice! Notice! The OVERLOOKING of sin comes before the call to repent. Indeed it is God's love that draws out from us that repentence, that turning away from sin. Sin does not throw God off His determined course. God simply overlooks it, forgets about it, and just goes on loving us. And there's nothing we can do to change that. It's a fact, a fact that we find very difficult to really believe because our own experience of other people, indeed our own experience of ourselves, is so very different. Our own immediate reaction if someone insults us or hurts us or does some damage to us, our own immediate reaction is to strike back, to punish, to teach the offender a lesson so that he or she may change BEHAVIOR, even if there is no change of HEART. Ah! But God is different! God wants a change of HEART!

The attitude of a loving God is clearly delineated in the story we had in the Gospel, the story of this man Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector, wealthy man, who would have been very much despised by his own people, rejected. He was working for the Roman conquerors. He wasn't worthy to see the Messiah, and so on and so forth.... Personally, I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Zacchaeus. I like this man. He's a go-getter! Nothing is going to stop him. He wants to see Jesus and he's going to see Him. So he pushes through the crowd, runs ahead, climbs up the tree, and gets his view of Jesus.

It would be a mistake however to think that Zacchaeus is the hero of this story or the focus of attention in this story. No. Jesus is the hero of this story. Jesus is the focus of attention. It is Jesus Who stops beneath the tree. It is Jesus Who looks up and sees Zacchaeus. It is Jesus Who says, "Come down, Zacchaeus." It is Jesus Who invites Himself to Zacchaeus' house for dinner that evening. Jesus did not demand repentence of Zacchaeus before going to eat supper with him. It was Jesus' action that brought out that generosity of spirit in Zacchaeus that made him declare "I will give half of everything I have to the poor. If I've offended anyone, cheated anyone, I will pay them back four times as much." And there was not only a change of BEHAVIOR there. There was a real change of HEART, because Jesus, in welcoming sinners and eating with sinners, gave them an opportunity to change their lives in an atmosphere of acceptance, in an atmosphere of love.

Two important lessons. First, I think that we should really be trusting of our loving God. God just goes on loving us no matter what we do. We don't earn that love. It is given freely and is given most generously. Sin leaves us in a very lonely place. You might say it leaves us stuck up a tree, away from other people. And Jesus says to us, "Come down. Come down. Join the community." And He invites us to His table, to His dinner, to His feast, the Eucharist. And every day at Mass we say, "Happy are those who are called to His supper."

Secondly, we are called to imitate our God when it comes to dealing with those who have offended us, who have hurt us, who have harmed us. They may not have earned our love. They may not have earned our forgiveness. We are called upon to give it freely and to give it generously. We have to give others the opportunity to change in an atmosphere of acceptance, an atmosphere of love, just the way God deals with us. And never forget that we say "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."

The stories about Jesus and the stories that Jesus Himself told are not just nice bedtime stories. Zacchaeus was challenged by the love of Jesus to change his life, to examine it and then to change it. And we also are being challenged by Jesus to examine our lives and to change them, to look at our own principles, our own ideals, our own prejudices, our own actions. And then we are invited to change in an atmosphere of loving acceptance by our God. He is "Lord and Lover of souls." Amen.