seeking to see Jesus

by Paul Uttaro

Dear Friends,

A very Blessed and Happy New Year to you all.

May we praise our God, in all that we do, for His great mercy.

I thought I'd start 2026 writing a reflection on Zacchaeus the tax collector (Luke 19), in light of the Divine House Guest devotion. It's one of my favorites. I've been struck by him for quite a while now. Zacchaeus seems to me to be very relatable but also enigmatic at the same time. For some reason, I am glad we get to know his name.

First, in the scene, Our Lord is traveling, "He came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town,"

This is another example of Our Lord as the 'Traveling Savior' just like in the DHG devotion. It is interesting to note that His intention was not to stay in Jericho, but He ends up doing so because of Zacchaeus response to His visit.

Zacchaeus shows us a model to follow, in response to Jesus Christ. He "was seeking to see Jesus". This we do today at every Holy Mass, in the Eucharist. We seek to see Him, to encounter Him again, to be with Him. Zacchaeus "could not see Him because of the crowd". Maybe we could examine the ways in which we sometimes cannot see Him. Whether it be in trials, doubts, fears or confusion from 'the crowd'.

And then let's be like Zacchaeus and 'climb a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus". The sycamore tree could be planted right outside of the door to our interior house. We could run and climb up before Holy Communion and from there, really see Our Eucharistic King coming to us.

Our Lord sees Zacchaeus. He says, "Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must dine at your house". This is just like we pray in the DHG devotion, but in reverse, to Our Lord "O, Divine House Guest of my soul, come, come in quickly!" Then we get the next line in the Gospel, which I think really connects us, Zacchaeus and the devotion, "and he came down quickly and received him with joy". Just like Abraham, running out to meet his Divine Guests, just like in running to tell his wife Sarah, in hospitable service, this is (I think) the goal of the DHG devotion. To run quickly and receive Our Lord with joy. Others grumble and say Our Lord has gone to stay at the house of a sinner, but this is all of us. We rely on His great mercy to clean our unworthy interior houses.

Zacchaeus then makes his confession of faith, by calling Jesus, Lord, and he offers his penance of repayment and restoration. Like us, going to confession, to prepare for our Guests visit.

In such beautiful fashion, Our Lord concludes the scene with this proclamation, "Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost." Salvation coming to our house, is the Eucharist, meeting Jesus. As St. Paul says, "and if you belong to Christ, you are Abraham's descendant."

Let us consider the hope of Zacchaeus as well. So much is contained within the climb up that tree!

Unconcerned by how he is viewed by the crowd, he climbs up quickly. We can imagine his heart racing, his mind wondering- could it be true, what I have heard about Jesus of Nazareth? Could he be the one? Would he be the one who does not reject me? Perhaps he had heard the voice of the accuser, "You are no good, everyone hates you. You are a traitor, unloved. There is no chance for one like you. You are the evil that you have done". But Zacchaeus must have held out hope. And as he rested on the limb of the tree, Jesus comes upon him. The Lord dispels any darkness, all the accusations, the self-loathing. He calls Zacchaeus by name! He changes everything in an instant. The Lord tells him, that He must be Zacchaeus' house guest! And so, after everything he had done, Zacchaeus is gifted with God Himself, coming to stay at his house for the evening. I imagine they shared a very joyous meal! It is the same for all of us. At every Mass. Every Eucharist, The Divine House Guest of Souls, comes to stay and share in a grand celebration.

Thanks be to God!