On our knees

On the feast of the Epiphany, we heard once again the story of the wise men's journey looking for the newborn promised king. Their journey led them to Jerusalem. After conferring with the chief priests and the scribes, the experts in scriptures, King Herod orients them to Bethlehem.
Only the wise men proceeded to Bethlehem. The experts who knew the prophecies did not budge. Knowledge and expertise, in fact, do not always lead to transformation. St. Thomas Aquinas once said that we learn theology on our knees.
"Fall on your knees", says a famous Christmas carol. Indeed, adoration is the only attitude in front of God, the One from whom I, and all of life itself, come and by whom everything exists.
In front of God's immensity, we realize that we are finite and totally dependent.
But we don't cower in fear. Perhaps that is why God chose to be born as a baby, of a very ordinary family, in the dark of the night, and in a stable in an insignificant town.
God draws us to Him, never by force, but by an attraction that we cannot explain; but we know it because it feels like coming home.

The sycamore and the gaze

What does the Gospel passage about Zaccheus teaches me?
It teaches me a lot.
First, it is truly a deep encounter that changes us. When I say deep, it means that it is an encounter that engages my entire being: mind, heart and limbs.
Second, encounter takes place because there is an attraction. This attraction may be caused by different reasons, but it must be there; because attraction is what makes us agree to suspend what is usual to focus on something. Attraction makes us open to the encounter.
Third, we have to do something after that initial attraction. It may be to climb a sycamore tree and do away with all appearances of "being cool".
Lastly, however odd or small our effort may be, God does His part. And when God truly looks at us, and we let that gaze penetrate the deepest core of our being, we will never be the same.