An element of surprise

But you, O Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, and the one who lifts up my head.⁴ I cry aloud to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy hill (Psalm 3:3-4) The relationship expressed by the psalmist in the texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today is one which we all seek to know. A shield from God to protect us from the influences that threaten to destroy our peace and contentment seems an ideal righteous environment. The elderly, like Eleazar, in the passage from  the Second Book of Maccabees should perhaps be given some kind of a pass to the peace and contentment of retirement but FriarJude Winkler reminds us of the great responsibility of those gifted with the experience of life to be examples of living the Gospel in their relationships with others. Many spiritual writers including Richard Rohr in his book FallingUpward celebrate the freedom of the ‘second half of life’ to live in witness to the great Love of God. The surprise of becoming a “white martyr” as our mission at retirement time offers a renewal of the role we see ourselves doing in the vineyard. The Gospel of Luke is an account full of journeys and surprises. As Jesus is travelling through Jericho to Jerusalem He becomes the object of the deep desire of Zacchaeus to see Him. Perhaps as a chief tax collector Zacchaeus, is in the second half of life. This encounter with Jesus has been interpreted in more than one way. The tense of the Greek verb can favour the scenario where Zacchaeus is like the Prodigal Son who declares an intention in the future to repent and perhaps convert or in the comments of Dan Clendenin, he is a righteous man today who Jesus identifies to show us how we too often misjudge without having all the information. It that light, the tax collector has been living as the “white martyr” receiving scorn and rejection as the result of the careless assumptions of the community. The ‘realized eschatology’ in the Gospel of Luke reminds us that the Life in the surprise of Love is now!