Salvation is witnessed

The texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary invite some consideration of what Richard Rohr writes in Falling Upward that we can enter the "second half of life" with a new journey toward greater intimacy with the Divine. This new journey is a return home to the simple and beautiful. The decision of Eleazar in the passage from the second book of Maccabees to be tortured to death instead of eating the flesh of animals sacrificed to idols  is a decision to put the elder duty of role model at the forefront of his following the Will of God which is the journey to a new relationship with God deeper than the one which he feared he would loose by rejecting the call to be a martyr. The approval of his friends is one of the "deaths" he experiences in the saving of his life through loosing it. In the Gospel from Luke, Jesus calls Zacchaeus into the second half journey by inviting Himself to visit Zacchaeus house and initiate the response of loosing wealth, former friends and position of influence as Jesus proclaims that the new journey bringing Zacchaeus into deeper relationship with God is "salvation has come to this house". Both these Scripture texts are the evidence of the proclamation of the psalmist that "Deliverance belongs to the Lord; may your blessing be on your people!"