A beautiful encounter

Zacheus, make haste and come down; for this day I must abide in thy house. 6 And he made haste and came down; and received him with joy..... But Zacheus standing, said to the Lord: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have wronged any man of any thing, I restore him fourfold

[Luke 19: 5-6,7-10]

Reading this Gospel really open something up in my heart. A few years ago when I heard this Gospel, I felt like Zacchaeus was always depicted as someone who was rich and needed conversion. That's a category I didn't belong in. So I thought. This is not a story about me. Or so I thought.

But praying with it yesterday, Zacchaeus didn't seem like a stranger at all anymore. Actually he seemed quite familiar.

Zacchaeus was simply seeking all happiness on earth in earthly goods. So did I. Until everything changes for him because of one encounter - meeting Jesus. Somehow, Zacchaeus finds what he has been looking for - something much better than what he had found before in the wordly stuff. If we look towards psychology, some studies shows that it is common for people to expect that there is a strong relationship between life satisfaction and subjective well-being, but studies also show that, the relationship is not very strong (e.g. Diener & Oishi, 2000; Kahneman & Deaton, 2010; Csikszentmihalyi, 1999). Rather, it seems like when people reach a certain standard of worldly goods, the happiness is provides stagnates. It's true that if we don't have money to cover our basic needs, it will probably decrease our well-being, but at some point the well-being stagnates. It cannot keep fulfilling all of our longing and desires.

So, in a way Zacchaeus is like most of us. He is longing for happiness, expects he might find it in material goods - and then he is actually in a position where he does have a lot of material goods, so much that he is at a point where his happiness stagnates. It probably does not keep fulfilling him anymore. But where else should he seek?

And this is Gospel that shows us the answer to that questions. His deepest longing, that maybe is so deep it's not even verbalized, has been answered in this very encounter. Although the Gospel doesn't tell in details about what happened in Zacchaeus' heart, I think his behavior show us very clearly that this made an impact. He made haste and came down, and received Jesus with joy, and He gives half of his goods away to the poor, and even decides to restore anything he did wrong. It is quite drastic! And so beautiful!

And it brings me back to my first personal encounter with Jesus. It's too precious and worthy of sharing fully here, but the main point about it was, that it made such an impact that in that moment, I was willing to give everything up for Him. To experience (not just rationally know) that I am being sought, pursued and endlessly loved by Jesus, is so profound and so fulfilling that everything that isn't Him can seem trivial and loses it's worth. And at the same time the readiness to give everything up for Him, was also in a way resting in knowing that if Jesus is holding me, then I don't have to hold myself. I don't have to provide for myself, someone else is doing that. And in that way I am free to let go. I don't have to hold on to material things, because He will provide. Maybe that is what Zaccheus felt too, the reality of Divine providence.

He can give, because someone gave to Him first. And he can seek because He was being sought first.

And that is the real wealth, I think. To be encountered by God. Personally and deeply. To be in Divine Intimacy with Him. Directly and through other people. We are deeply relational beings. Most psychologist theories would agree, whether you ask evolutionary psychologists, social psychologists, developmental psychologists, neuropsychologists, clinical psychologists... In a field with many different theories and studies pointing in different directions, this is one of those things where most psychologist theories would more or less point in the same direction. We are social beings, and we need to be deeply seen, known and loved - by our Creator and by others. This is real wealth. Fullness of life.

So, I encourage you today to both think about previous encounters with God or others, that had a deep impact to you, that were rich moments to you - and really savor them, hug them and be with them. Let them touch you. And also - to pray and seek for those encounters. To ask Jesus to really encounter you, that He may show you how He really knows and loves you. And to pray for the grace to be that beautiful encounter in other people's life. Because this, this is really richness in life.

References:

Diener & Oishi (2000). Money and happiness: Income and subjective well-being across nations.  

Kahneman & Deaton (2010). High income improves evalution of life but not emotion well-being. PNAS, 107(38), 16489-16493

Czikszentmihalyi, M. (1999). If we are so rich, why aren't we happy? American psychologist.