Experiencing Jesus is life-changing

Since the beginning of November has been a flurry of activity here on Καθολικός διάκονος, I figured I would keep my reflection on the readings for the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time brief. In addition to composing the Prayers of the Faithful, each week I write a little introduction to the readings. This intro. to the readings is read by the lector just prior to the beginning of Mass.

It may be a bit of an exaggeration to state that my brief intro. is for all the readings. What I try to do is distill the basic or most important point from the Gospel for each given Sunday. I hope the result is a very condensed homilette. Anyway, this is the intro. I wrote for today's Gospel, which is Luke 19:1-10:

Zacchaeus being called down from the tree, by William Hole, 1908

Zacchaeus was eager to meet Jesus. When the moment of encounter came, he was not disappointed. Meeting the Lord changed the trajectory of Zacchaeus’s life, causing him to repent, to make amends for his failings, and walk a new path. May our encounter with Jesus in this Eucharist have the same effect on us.