Zacchaeus: A Strange Conversion Episode

Image from Google (29.09.2011)

Family Unit Meeting VII

I. Introduction: Repentance a free gift from God

“How many of us here can claim having had the kind of breakthrough experience people like St Paul or King David or Zacchaeus had undergone? I mean a sudden, life-changing overthrow of the self, instantly followed by a profound upheaval within, resulting in self-renewal or permanent transformation.” This was how the unorthodox Fr Zachariah the Parish Priest introduced the subject at the FU meeting. He reassured the group: “As decided at our last meeting, we are going to discuss the Zacchaeus story here; and I am sure you have come prepared. But if we begin with consideration of a few cases of apparently sudden conversions, we could appreciate the Zacchaeus story better.”