The poem “The Hound of Heaven” by Francis Thompson very beautifully and powerfully tells the story of a spiritual pursuit involving an individual person and God. Perhaps the greatest “surprise” of the poem is that it is not about the person pursuing God, but rather about God relentlessly pursuing one single person, even a person who has fled from God. The language of the poem is a little difficult, but it begins this way:

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; I fled Him, down the arches of the years; I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways of my own mind; and in the midst of tears I hid from Him and, and under running laughter. Up vistaed hopes I sped; And shot, precipitated, Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears, from those strong Feet that followed, followed after. But with unhurrying chase, and unperturbed pace, deliberate speed, majestic instancy, They beat — and a Voice beat more instant than the Feet — “All things betray thee, who bestrayest Me.”

In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus answers the challenge of the crowd by saying that He, “the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.” In Jesus Christ, we see that the Son of God is the “Hound of Heaven.” Although He enjoyed a perfect life in heaven, out of love He chose to become one of us in order to save us from sin and death.

And we see in the Gospel Jesus’ personal touch. Jesus not only came to save all of us, but also each of us, including Zacchaeus.

Now, Zacchaeus may not be exactly like the person described as fleeing from God in the poem. After all, Zacchaeus clearly wanted to see Jesus, and even acts with some ingenuity in order to overcome the problem of his, well, to put it delicately, “vertical underenhancement,” as he climbs up the tree in order to see Jesus. But we should also remember that Zacchaeus, like all of us, was certainly a sinner in some ways, and as a tax collector it is likely that he was involved in more sins than he might have been otherwise, since tax collection at that time was a relatively corrupt profession.

There is another passage from “The Hound of Heaven” that captures the moment of encounter with God after the flight of sin is ended, one that shows the poverty of sin giving way to total surrender to God. Here, God addresses the sinner in the following words:

“All which I took from thee I did but take, not for thy harms, but just that thou might’st seek it in My arms. All which thy child’s mistake fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home: Rise, clasp My hand, and come!”

Beginning with his climb up the tree, and then with his coming down at the call of Jesus, his welcoming of Jesus into his home, his pledge to turn his life around and to make up for his past mistakes, and his commitment to live a godly life, we see Zacchaeus doing exactly what God tells the sinner to do in the poem: he clasps God’s hand, the hand stretched out to rescue him.

Many of us, at some point in our lives, have fled from God. And I would venture to say that many of us can point to one or a few significant moments when we were aware of God stretching out His hand to rescue us from what Scripture calls “the pit of destruction.” We should thank God repeatedly for saving us.

Many of us, at some point in our lives, have fled from God. And I would venture to say that many of us can point to one or a few significant moments when we were aware of God stretching out His hand to rescue us from what Scripture calls “the pit of destruction.” We should thank God repeatedly for saving us. And from time to time we should remember the very real spiritual danger we were in.

Also, undoubtedly, each of us is close to people who are fleeing from God right now, who, like Zacchaeus, cannot see Christ but who might or might not be interested enough to climb the tree in order to see Him. Here, we need to shift from placing ourselves in the position of Zacchaeus to the position of a member of the crowd.

We read in the Gospel that Zacchaeus could not see Jesus because of the crowd. We should ask ourselves: is there something about me that blocks other people’s view of Jesus Christ? Each of us is called to be another Christ in the world, to make Christ known to other people. And yet, how often do we hear stories about someone who left the Church years ago because someone in the Church treated them badly?

I am very conscious as a priest that, while I need to be a strong leader, I never want to become the subject of a story someone tells 20 years from now about the last time he or she entered a Catholic Church. And so we all need to be careful that we are attracting people to Christ, not repelling them by our unkindness.

Now, being kind does not mean we compromise on the truth of our faith, or that we fail to correct and challenge people when needed. I also don’t mean to say that people have a good excuse for leaving the Church because of someone’s unkindness. Rather, the call of the Gospel is that we are responsible for radiating the love of Christ to other people, even when we challenge them. And all of us are responsible for having the determination of Zacchaeus, determination not to let obstacles keep us from seeking Christ and clasping His hand when He reaches out to save us.

The point of all of this is simple: Jesus has come to us because we could never have gone to Him on our own. He is the “Hound of Heaven,” who has come to seek and to save all who are lost. What we need is to “clasp (God’s) hand” by faithfully participating in the life of the Church, so that we might hear some of the sweetest words imaginable, words that echo the message of Jesus in today’s Gospel: “Today salvation has come to this house.” Today salvation has come to you.

Fr. Charles Fox is a priest of the Archdiocese of Detroit currently assigned to the theology faculty of Sacred Heart Major Seminary. He is also a weekend associate pastor at St. Therese of Lisieux Parish in Shelby Township and chaplain and a board member of St. Paul Evangelization Institute, headquartered in Warren.