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Many of us remember Billy Graham, the most popular Protestant preacher of the 20^th century.

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He once shared a story about his wife, Ruth, who was driving through miles of construction on a highway. After carefully following the detours and warning signs, she finally came to the final sign that read: 

“End of construction. Thank you for your patience.”

Struck by the message, Ruth went home chuckling, telling Billy that she wanted that line engraved on her tombstone.

And it was. 

Ruth Graham. 1920 – 2007. “End of construction. Thank you for your patience.”

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In our journeys through life, we will all have our share of highs and lows, detours and bumps in the road. 

Like Ruth Graham, aren’t we all “under construction,” works in progress from beginning to end?

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Consider, for example, the life of Zacchaeus in today’s Gospel, the most hated man in town. 

He’s the chief tax collector, who’s made a living off of squeezing pennies from the penniless.

Zacchaeus is ambitious, powerful, and greedy. But he’s also “desperate,” as the Gospel tells us, “desperate” to see Jesus.

Zacchaeus is a man with competing desires. After years of living high on the hog, he remains unfulfilled.

His work has forced him into social isolation. Though he appears strong and powerful to the outside world – as so many of us do – he’s starving for life’s intangibles – love, intimacy, and friendship.

Things he longs to share, above all else, with God.

As the French philosopher Blaise Paschal once wrote, “In every person’s heart is an empty space that has the shape of God…and nothing else can fill it.”

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Nothing else can fill it.

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No degree, no position, and ultimately, no person can fill that empty chamber within. Our hearts remain restless until they rest in God.

As Bono, the lead singer of U2, famously sang, “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.”

Similarly, how many of us are searching? 

We have so much to be grateful for – great friends, a successful career, a beautiful home, a fruitful ministry, yet we’re still restless within.

Something is missing. We still haven’t found what we’re looking for.

Zacchaues felt something was missing, too.

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It was that desire – the desire for something more – that drove him up the sycamore tree. 

And look how Jesus responds. “Zacchaues, come down from there. I must stay with you today.” That is, “Come here. Come closer.” Jesus reels Zacchaeus in like a fish hooked on a fishing line.

Instantly, Zacchaeus is changed. He’s found what’s he’s looking for.

He’s had an encounter with the divine. 

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It doesn’t mean that he’s a finished product. There’s still much for him to do. Zacchaues must make amends, repay those whom he’s wronged, and seek their forgiveness. 

Such is the path of discipleship; often we must start anew. Like Ruth Graham and each of us, Zacchaues is a work in progress. 

But at least he’s on the right path.

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Like Zacchaeus, are we “desperate” to see Jesus, to have an encounter with the divine? 

Or are we trying to ignore the existence of that inner chamber, perhaps stuffing it with other people or things?

Doing so will ultimately never work; it leaves us unsatisfied.

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Here’s a note of encouragement: The Gospel tells us that salvation came – not only to Zacchaeus – but also to his household. 

Faith rippled out from the inner chamber of his own heart, changing his entire family, reminding us that once Jesus has an opening, all things are possible.

The faith that you and I are nurturing here at Mass does make a difference, not only in our own lives, but also in the lives of those around us, even if we can’t see it yet.

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May the hunger of Zacchaeus, the same hunger found within each of us, drive us ever closer to the God we seek, for our hearts will remain restless until they rest in him.

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Halloween is my least favorite holiday.

It’s amazing how many people decorate their yards with goblins, ghouls, and monsters. In some cases, people are having fun; in others it seems like they’re literally trying to scare us! 

I for one get spooked, even disturbed, at how obsessed people have become with violence and the darker side of reality.

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At it’s core, Halloween reminds us that life can often be scary. 

For example, I can think of a young mother who was recently diagnosed with cancer, a young man who was nearly incinerated in a car accident, a young child who’s depressed.

Scary things – real things – that happen to us in life.

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But Paul reminds us in our first reading that nothing – no event, no person, no diagnosis, no demon can separate us from the love of Christ.

Rather, God stands ready to extend his loving help to anyone who calls upon his name. 

This is the mark of a true believer, as Saint Paul says, one who knows that in the end the victory is ours, for “we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.”

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Felicity Huffman.

Hard to believe the former “Desperate Housewives” star was just released from prison after pleading guilty to participating in the college admissions scandal.

And Lori Laughlin is next. The lady we once knew as Aunt Becky on “Full House” is facing years behind bars.

It was pay to play. Wealthy parents bribed university officials to admit their children into the nation’s top universities.

The lower part of ourselves relishes in the downfall of the rich and famous, people who bend the rules or break the law for their own benefit.

Think of OJ Simpson, Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein, and Felicity Huffman. 

What scum!

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But to agree to such a statement means we’ve fallen into the trap in today’s Gospel – judging others for their sins without realizing our own.

If, for example, our mistakes were televised on the nightly news – aired before millions of judgmental eyes – how would we feel?

It must be humiliating.

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Lesson number one: stop judging lest we be judged. As Saint Paul says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Even the Pharisee in today’s Gospel, who walks into the temple offering God a personal piety report.

“Thank God I’m not like that tax collector…I pray! I tithe! I fast!” he says. In other words, “I’m so much better than he is!”

This guy doesn’t pray at all. Rather, he leaves the temple the way he entered it: blind and arrogant.

Unchanged.

Though it’s easy to criticize him, how often have we had a similar experience? We come to Mass or pray in private, but leave the way we came.

Unchanged.

It’s impossible to have an experience of God’s mercy if we do not know our own sins, meaning it’s possible to live a type of Christianity that never changes us.

It only scratches the surface, while leaving us broken within. 

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Perhaps what we’re in need of – I certainly am – is to model the behavior of the tax collector, who says to God simply, “Have mercy on me a sinner.”  

People hate the word “sinner” today.

It’s often used in a derogatory way towards other people like Harvey Weinstein and Felicity Huffman, or at best in a joking manner towards ourselves. 

People have said to me, for example, “Father, I can’t go to church. The roof would collapse! I’m a sinner!” 

But that’s precisely why I go. I come here looking to be changed. I come looking for God.

What about you?

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In fact, Jesus insists upon us seeing ourselves this way, as sinners; as a beautiful mess made in the image and likeness of God, but broken within.

Only then can the Lord make us whole.

I suppose the alternative is to see ourselves as a finished product, packaged and ready to go, ready to stand before the judgment seat of God.

Not me.

The more I see my own weaknesses, the harder it becomes to judge those around me, even Felicity Huffman. I need the Lord no less than the next.

A healthy level of self-awareness – not self-hatred – breaks that “us versus them” mentality of the Pharisee, who thought he was better than other people because he followed a few simple rules. 

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Two men entered the temple that day to pray. One gave God a personal piety report.  

The other made a cleansing confession.

God heard both men speak. But only one life was changed. 

Which one will we be?