You're listening to the I Pray with the Gospel Sunday Reflection on the St. Jose Maria Institute podcast.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me.

I adore you a profound reverence.

I ask your pardon for my sins and the grace to make this time of prayer fruitful.

My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my Father and Lord,

my guardian angel, intercede for me.

The 31st Sunday in ordinary time.

A reading from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 19.

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through.

And there was a man named Zekeas. He was a chief tax collector and rich.

And he sought to see who Jesus was, and could not on account of the crowd, because he was small of stature.

So he ran ahead and climbed up onto the sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way.

And when Jesus came to that place, he looked up and said to him,

Sekees, make haste and come down, for I must stay at your house today.

The man just wanted to see that rabbi, for whom everyone was talking about.

He wasn't planning to invite Jesus into his home.

A good rabbi, he probably thought, wouldn't accept a dinner invitation from a publican.

He wasn't thinking about his conversion, but Jesus was.

So taking advantage of Zechias' curiosity, Jesus invited himself to stay at the publican's house. There is a desire to know the truth inscribed on the human heart. The philosopher

Peter Kreeft went to Kelvin College in Michigan to study his Protestant faith. There he took a course

in church history from a Calvinist preacher.

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