Today Jesus must come into your Home

You guys ready for more baseball tonight? Early Mass was just dead. Nobody was here this morning, so I am glad to see so many here tonight. Sometimes I get caught up in binge watching. Not only baseball but also series on Netflix.

Sometimes a series will just hit me and I can’t stop watching. One of those series recently is Parenthood. Parenthood is a series which was on ABC. It was about this mother and father, matriarchal and patriarchal figures. The father is the guy that used to play Coach. I don’t know if you remember that show years ago. It is a show about a mother and father and what it’s like to be married, to be parents, and to have a family. The show centers on their family home and how they all come home.

As I was praying with the scripture of Zacchaeus, there was this notion of urgency, of Jesus wanting to be in his home. He says, “Zacchaeus come down quickly for today I must stay at your house.” And Zacchaeus came down quickly and received Him with joy.

As I was praying with that, a few scenes from the Parenthood TV series flooded through my head. There was a scene with the daughter, Julia, who was divorcing her husband Joel. They were separated and the scene that floods through my mind is where they are talking about the house. What are they going to do with the house, and how are they going to separate it. There is a scene where Joel decides he is going to give her everything because he loves her. He says, “Julia take it all. Take the house, take everything, I don’t want it.” Julia tries to approach him the next day and says, “Joel, yesterday was so emotional. I just want to give you a chance to change your mind. We bought the house together and the smart thing to do is to take the emotion out of it and just split all of the assets.” Joel says to her, “It is not an asset. It is our home. We brought our baby girl home to this house, Julia. It is the first safe place our son ever spent the night. I mean, heck, the first night we owned it we didn’t have furniture or electricity. We just laid on that floor and looked around and argued about what color we were going to paint the walls. It is not an asset. It is a home and it kills me to walk away from it. However, I know I hurt you, and I own that. I get that. So I don’t want the house. If I can’t have you in it, I don’t want it.”

There is another scene where Joel is talking to the father figure, to Coach. I will call him Zeke (Zeke is the Dad’s name). Zeke is this gruff figure, kind of like Coach, who doesn’t have a lot of patience for people. Like an old bitter man. He goes to talk to Zeke and Zeke says, “What’s going on, son? What are you doing here?” He says, “Ah… I’m saying goodbye Zeke.”
Zeke: “What?”

Joel: I never had a role model growing up. I never had that, and I think you were that for me. I just wanted to say thank you for that and I’m gonna miss you and I’m gonna miss your family.”
Zeke: “That’s it! You’re outta here?”
Joel: “Yeah. I mean we finished up mediation this week so …”
Zeke: “So you’re done?”
Joel: “Yeah. I can’t keep dragging this on. You know I gotta let her go.”
Zeke: “Yeah. Just giving up on her?”
Joel: “I’m not giving up. No I’m not, this is what she wanted. This is what she, and I’m trying to honor that. This is what your daughter wanted. Can you please just let me walk out of here with some sense of dignity?”
Zeke: “Are you kidding me?” He leans forward and says to him, “You love your kids?”
Joel: “Come on!”
Zeke: “You love your kids?”
Joel: Shakes his head yes.
Zeke: “Do you love your wife?”
Joel looks up with tears in his eyes: “You know I do”

Then Zeke says to him, “When you two got married, I took you in as a son. You look at me, you look at me right now. Okay, you love her? Joel, you love her? You fight for her. Come on fight for her. Don’t leave her.”

The next day Joel is pondering what he should do. There is a moment where he realizes he gets this moment of courage. His eyes look up. There is inspiration. The music is building. He goes to Julia’s house and he says to her, “A year ago you asked me to fight for you and I was too stupid to listen. Here I am, and I don’t want to live another day without you Julia. I am fighting for you, and I am fighting for our family. I am fighting for our marriage, and I want you back.

I made a vow when we were married that I would uphold our marriage through good times and bad. And I failed. I failed you, Julia. I felt such shame. As long as we are still married, I am going to do everything in my power to uphold those vows because I love you so much. I have never stopped loving you. I am going to honor you for the rest of my life. If you will have me.”

Can you sense that urgency that Joel now has of wanting to be in the house, in the game, in the family? He wants to be the husband that he’s been called to be. There is an urgency to that. Julia isn’t quite ready. She talks to her mother and says, “I screwed up huge. I know that. That is what got us here. I never gave up the fight. This is the first time we were tested and he gave up. He was weak.”

Her mother, Camille, said, “You know what marriage is, sweetie? You know what it is really about? Forgiveness.”

What does all this have to do with Zacchaeus and the story of Jesus encountering him? First of all, when we look at marriage, marriage is a Sacrament. Marriage is supposed to reveal to us something about God. Marriages that are truly lived out as a Sacrament show us that God does not give up on us, “Through good times and in bad, in sickness, and in health, all the days of our lives.” God will not give up on us. God actually will fight for you. God loves you so much He will fight for you. Jesus says, “Today, I must come into your home,” and Zacchaeus receives Him in with this great joy.

But remember marriage is also all about forgiveness. You have to forgive over and over and over and over, sometimes seventy times seven times in one day. When Jesus goes to Zacchaeus, the crowd begins to grumble because “He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.” But Zacchaeus stands there before the Lord saying, “Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over.” And Jesus says, “Today salvation has come to this house.”

I just want to invite you, if you need to experience reconciliation in your own family, with your own spouse, do it today. Don’t wait. If you need to experience reconciliation from God every Saturday, you have the opportunity to come to Confession. If it has been over a year, if it has been 20 years or 30 years, come and experience His mercy and you will experience the joy that Zacchaeus experienced.

Realize that Jesus will never give up on you. If you are struggling in your marriage, fight for it. Also realize that this Church is supposed to be your home. You are always welcome here. This Church is your home and it would not be the same without you here. We need you here in this Church for it to feel like home to us. The Father will never give up on you. Jesus is always with you, and the Holy Spirit will allow you to experience that great joy. Just as Zacchaeus received Jesus with joy, in just a few moments, you are going to come forward to the altar and you are going to receive the Body and Blood of your Christ. You will take Him into you because He wants to make a home with you.

Just as Zacchaeus received Him with great joy and Julia finally turns around and receives her husband back in his home, you have the opportunity now to receive the Lord Jesus into your home with great joy.