General. The faithful are this Sunday urged to do their utmost to obtain God’s promised grace. We are faithful by virtue of the Baptism received in our childhood, but in early times persons were only baptised after a time of instruction on the first rudiments of the faith. They were then known as catechumens and were the children of believing parents or indeed of pagans who were not fully initiated in the principles of Christianity. They were bound to hear the repetitive sermons of their catechists so that during the Easter Vigil they might be admitted to becoming faithful by the imposition of hands and the sign of the Cross in Baptism.

Book of Wisdom. God’s relationship with the world He has created is put into focus, especially with regard to the nothingness of the universe (a speck of dust) as compared to God’s infinitesimal mercy. God is aware of all that which is going on in the world, He does not ‘repent’ for humanity which He has created, and He follows each person individually, the good and the bad, to keep each on the right path and to correct, gently and gradually, those who have strayed from His ways.

Second Epistle to the Thessalonians. St Paul takes it upon himself to exhort Christians to be worthy of their calling so that praise might be rendered throughout the world to the name of Jesus and his followers may be offered recognition as God’s people according to the grace received from the Father and His Son Jesus.

St Luke. Jesus had no difficulty in visiting and dining with known sinners notwithstanding ‘justified’ people’s talk. Zacchaeus, sensing Jesus’ recognition of him as a human being worthy of being converted, repents from his financial misdeeds and promises retribution to the downtrodden. This is indeed the story of God’s mercy being shown to a sinner who, in his own manner, re-enacts this mercy with those around him whom he had faulted. Jesus takes cue from Zacchaeus’ statement and speaks clearly about his mission to seek (anywhere and notwithstanding the talk of the town) and to bring salvation to lost souls.

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