Nov. 4, 2007, is the 31st Sunday in ordinary time (Year C). It is also “Cemetery Sunday.”

Parish

NCRegister.com, on its “Resources” page, explains how to organize a parish Jesse Tree Ornament Swap for Advent. The program (first described in Faith & Family magazine) allows 28 families to obtain a set of 28 ornaments for use in their own homes by each making one.

Family

Cemetery Sunday is a good day to visit loved ones’ final resting places. Remind your children that the entire month of November is dedicated to prayers for the dead.

Media

CatholicWorldMission.com offers a coloring book and audio production of Cecilia, Saint of the Catacombs. It introduces children to the ancient Christian custom of praying for the dead.

Sunday Readings

Wisdom 11:22-12:1; Psalms 145:1-2, 8-11, 13-14; Second Thessalonians 1:11-2:2; Luke 19:1-10

EPriest.com offers homily resource packs for each Sunday’s readings.

Our Take

Human beings have always been fascinated by celebrity — from the Egyptian pyramids to People magazine. Christ didn’t denounce this human fascination with celebrity — instead, he supplied it with a deeper meaning.

We see it first in his words to the people flocking to see John the Baptist. “What did you go out to the desert to see — a reed swayed by the wind? … Someone dressed in fine garments?” he asked (Luke 7: 24).

Christ wanted them to understand exactly what they went looking for — a message from God, not just a famous man.

He similarly rejects mere celebrity status for his own mother: “Blessed is the womb that bore you!” someone shouts out (Luke 11:27). He answers by pointing to the real reason to admire his mother: “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.”

Finally, Jesus rejects mere celebrity status for himself.

In John 6:15, we are told “Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off to make him king,” and so he avoids them. When he reappears to address the crowd, he scandalizes them by telling them about the Eucharist, and many leave him.

Jesus does want to be loved — very much — but he insists on being loved on his terms. We see the clearest indication of this in today’s Gospel.

As he is passing through Jericho, he notices that Zacchaeus, the wealthy tax collector, had climbed a tree in order to see him — much like the paparazzi on TMZ might do.

Jesus doesn’t mind this celebrity treatment — but he purifies it. He tests Zacchaeus — and the encounter changes the tax collector.

He wants Zacchaeus not just to get excited about him, but to change his life.

That’s the right response to Jesus because he is the Lord who is mentioned in the first reading, the one to whom “the whole universe is as a grain from a balance or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth.”

He isn’t a celebrity — he is our source and ultimate end. And he doesn’t want praise of our words so much as the praise of our lives, as St. Paul describes: “that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him.”

Tom and April Hoopes are editorial directors of Faith & Family magazine, the Register’s sister publication. It’s online at FaithandFamilyMag.com