Many of us, if we were asked whether or not the goal of our prayer and spiritual life was to get to know God better, would most likely answer, "Of course." But how many of us would think that another purpose of our prayer and spiritual life was for God to get to know us better? We think of God as the One who views the whole universe as a grain of sand. How can God get to know us better? The author of Wisdom reminds us that the Lord is a "lover of souls" (Wisdom 11:26)-- and lovers, if they do always seeking out their beloved, wanting to know them better, knowing yet overlooking their faults, wanting nothing but to love them more and more.
 
In today's Gospel Jesus embodies this God whose imperishable spirit is in all things. Not only does he allow the extreme sinner Zaccheus to speak with him, but Jesus seeks him out, up in a tree. And then--losing his head with love for his brother in the faith of Abraham--Jesus becomes a part of his life by insisting that Zaccheus take him into his own house, the house he lived in through ill-gotten, sinful gains as a tax collector. Wisdom and Luke both tell us that God is willing to walk right into our frail sinfulness in order to know us better, love us more, and bring us in forgiveness to salvation.
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