Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C | Dominica hebdomada trigesima prima (XXXI) « Per annum », Anno C
30 October 2022 in the year of our Lord
Lk 19:1-10 At that time, Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town. Now a man there named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man, was seeking to see who Jesus was; but he could not see him because of the crowd, for he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way. When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said, "Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house." And he came down quickly and received him with joy. When they all saw this, they began to grumble, saying, "He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner." But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, "Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over." And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost." |
Κατά Λουκάν Ευαγγέλιον 19:1-10 1 Καὶ εἰσελθὼν διήρχετο τὴν Ἰεριχώ. 2 Καὶ ἰδοὺ ἀνὴρ ὀνόματι καλούμενος Ζακχαῖος, καὶ αὐτὸς ἦν ἀρχιτελώνης καὶ αὐτὸς πλούσιος· 3 καὶ ἐζήτει ἰδεῖν τὸν Ἰησοῦν τίς ἐστιν καὶ οὐκ ἠδύνατο ἀπὸ τοῦ ὄχλου, ὅτι τῇ ἡλικίᾳ μικρὸς ἦν. 4 καὶ προδραμὼν εἰς τὸ ἔμπροσθεν ἀνέβη ἐπὶ συκομορέαν ἵνα ἴδῃ αὐτὸν ὅτι ἐκείνης ἤμελλεν διέρχεσθαι. 5 καὶ ὡς ἦλθεν ἐπὶ τὸν τόπον, ἀναβλέψας ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτόν· Ζακχαῖε, σπεύσας κατάβηθι, σήμερον γὰρ ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ σου δεῖ με μεῖναι. 6 καὶ σπεύσας κατέβη καὶ ὑπεδέξατο αὐτὸν χαίρων. 7 καὶ ἰδόντες πάντες διεγόγγυζον λέγοντες ὅτι παρὰ ἁμαρτωλῷ ἀνδρὶ εἰσῆλθεν καταλῦσαι. 8 σταθεὶς δὲ Ζακχαῖος εἶπεν πρὸς τὸν κύριον· ἰδοὺ τὰ ἡμίσιά μου τῶν ὑπαρχόντων, κύριε, τοῖς πτωχοῖς δίδωμι, καὶ εἴ τινός τι ἐσυκοφάντησα ἀποδίδωμι τετραπλοῦν. 9 εἶπεν δὲ πρὸς αὐτὸν ὁ Ἰησοῦς ὅτι σήμερον σωτηρία τῷ οἴκῳ τούτῳ ἐγένετο, καθότι καὶ αὐτὸς υἱὸς Ἀβραάμ ἐστιν· 10 ἦλθεν γὰρ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ζητῆσαι καὶ σῶσαι τὸ ἀπολωλός. |
Fr John Lankeit's homily :
Today’s Readings give us a glimpse of two traits of God that we can easily gloss over without much serious consideration. The first is his immense power—the almighty power that created the universe out of nothing. The second attribute is his immense mercy—a forgiveness so extraordinary that it can upset our sense of justice.
Let’s start with the first attribute of God—his immense power. To even begin to understand God’s awesomeness we need something big to compare him to. So, let’s start with the biggest thing in existence—the universe itself.
The universe is so vast that we have to use terms and figures to explain its size that are pretty much meaningless to anyone but a mathematician or physicist.
Consider this: The visible universe is approximately 93 billion light years in diameter according to current thinking. A light year is about 5.88 trillion miles. So, we take 93 billion light years times 5.88 trillion miles and we get...a headache!
Even crazier is that some scientists today assert that the invisible universe is 250 times the size of the visible universe...whatever that means!
Now, as if these concepts weren’t mind-bogging enough, let’s turn to our 1st Reading from the Book of Wisdom, to see how the Creator compares to what he created. The first verse in today’s reading from the Book of Wisdom says:
Before the LORD the whole universe is as a grain from a balance or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth. (Wis 11:22)
If we thought that the universe was massive—then trying to comprehend God? Well...no computer model today—or any day in the future—will ever be able to calculate that.
Now let’s consider God’s immense mercy. In this same passage, we read:
But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things; and you overlook sins for the sake of repentance...O Lord and lover of souls...(Wis 11:23, 26)
If the enormous universe is as miniscule as a speck of grain to God, then an individual human soul in its tininess would scarcely hit God’s radar screen...or so we would think! And yet, the creator of the universe loves each soul—yours, mine and everyone else’s.
But the mystery doesn’t end there. If we have difficulty understanding why such an immensely powerful God would bother with such a tiny soul, it’s even more difficult to comprehend why he would bother with a seriously sinful soul.
This is where Jesus’ interaction with Zacchaeus in today’s Gospel comes into play. Our Gospel Acclamation—the Alleluia verse sung before the Gospel—provides a perfect transition for our reflection:
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life. (cf. Jn 3:16)
God loves everything he created, but he has a particular love for the human soul. And he has an even greater concern for the lost soul. His love for his straying ones is so great that, as Jesus himself put it at the end of today’s Gospel passage:
“...the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.” (Lk 19:10)
Now, at first glance, it would seem that Jesus’ interaction with Zacchaeus happened by accident because the Gospel reports that...Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town. (Lk 19:1)
Here we’re reminded of the resurrected Jesus’ actions on the first Easter Evening on the road to Emmaus. Let’s pick up in verse 27 of Chapter 24, of this same Gospel of Luke, looking at what Jesus does...and why:
...beginning with Moses and all the prophets, [Jesus] interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He appeared to be going further, but they constrained him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him; and he vanished out of their sight. They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?” (Lk 24:27-32)
See the similarity in Jesus actions in these two encounters?
Jesus first puts himself in the vicinity—the presence—of the persons he wishes to reach—but he does so in a non-threatening way—in a manner that requires a response from the persons to remain in contact with Jesus.
Today’s Gospel passage says that Jesus intended to pass through Jericho—where there just happened to be a big sinner seeking to see him.
On the road to Emmaus, Jesus had ignited the two disheartened disciples’ hearts then, as we read, “He appeared to be going further...”. In other words, he had captivated their hearts, but now left it in their court to respond. And respond they did! They prevailed upon Jesus to stay because they had been so deeply touched...and they wanted more. Now let’s turn back to today’s Gospel:
Now a man there named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man, was seeking to see who Jesus was; but he could not see him because of the crowd, for he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way. (Lk 19:2-4)
There are a few more important things to note about Zacchaeus.
He was a chief tax collector and a wealthy man. As we observed in last week’s Parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, tax collectors were hated because they were crooks. First, they worked for a Roman government that oppressed the Jewish people. And as if that weren’t bad enough, they extorted extra money from of their fellow Jews to line their own pockets.
Now Zacchaeus wasn’t just a tax collector. He was a chief tax collector, meaning that he moved up the ranks, presumably because he was a better cheater than his peers...so much so that he became wealthy on the backs of his countrymen, while likely stepping on his co-workers in order to climb the corporate ladder.
He seemingly had it all, so, why did he care that Jesus was in his neighborhood? Why wasn’t he content to just go on living the life of luxury at the expense of other people and let the poor preacher pass by? Here, I’m reminded of a comedian who—once he became rich and famous—found that the kinds of things he had once coveted as a starving performer quickly lost their luster once he had access to them. He told of staying for the first time at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge:
“...you walk in one day and there’s a giraffe outside your room! By day three, you’re saying, “What, another giraffe?”
Isn’t the material world like that? You get want you want and you’re soon bored by it. And then you have to buy another thing...or have another experience...to try to get some satisfaction...but it never lasts.
You really don’t even need to be wealthy to know what this is like. Just think of the cell phone graveyard in your own home—that box in the closet that holds all your old phones and charging cables—the same phones you once were willing to go to great lengths to get your hands on, but which now sit collecting dust and cluttering your house because now you have the newest model which, in another year will no longer be “cool” because the next generation phone will be released...and you’ll have to have that one!
Zacchaeus—driven by the hunger for love and meaning in his empty heart—may very well have been motivated at first by nothing more than the same addictive search for novelty that characterizes people who search for happiness among the things of this world—when he went out to see the famous Jesus. Maybe he thought seeing this famous guy would be like everything else—exciting in the moment, but not lasting very long.
Whatever his motivation, let’s listen again to that passage:
[Zaccheus] was seeking to see who Jesus was; but he could not see him because of the crowd, for he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way. (Lk 19:2-4)
Zacchaeus was short and could not see Jesus because of the crowd. At face value, we might notice nothing beyond this physical description of the circumstances. But there’s more to it when we consider the spiritual meaning of this verse.
His “shortness” symbolizes how the life he had built for himself fell short of the happiness he assumed it would bring him.
The crowd that prevented him from seeing Jesus symbolizes a society that he both manipulated...and sought to impress by his success.
But the pride that drove his greed only blinded him to what was most important...and left his heart empty...and seeking something better.
So, he went to excessive lengths—even demeaning himself by climbing a tree like a monkey—in order to “rise above” the crowd and seek what his heart hungered for—the happiness that all his worldly riches could not deliver. He had reached the point where he neither cared about his reputation, nor cared about his stuff, because he had a chance, perhaps, in spotting this holy man, to finally taste the joy that his heart was created for, but which always eluded him.
Jesus noticed all this.
When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said to him,
“Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.” And he came down quickly and received him with joy. (Lk 19:5-6)
Here we can ask ourselves—who received whom with joy? At face value, it’s Zacchaeus receiving Jesus—into his home—with joy. But Jesus also received Zacchaeus—into his heart—with joy.
At some point, every person must ask himself or herself questions like:
“Is this all there is?”
“What is my life really about?”
“What lasting happiness do I achieve by impressing others with my
lifestyle and my stuff?
“Who am I?”
This last question is key.
Jesus didn’t come just to reveal his Father to us—though he did, indeed, come to do that! He also came to reveal us to ourselves. We see this as well in today’s Gospel.
After the people grumbled about Jesus consorting with scumbags like Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus repented and promised to restore true justice for his crimes.
And Jesus said to him,
“Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham.” (Lk 19:9)
Zacchaeus—whatever his initial motivations—received from Jesus what his heart most desired—his identity as a beloved Son of God the Father. All his money...all his wealth...paled in comparison to the value of his soul—a value revealed to him by Jesus.
Here we must notice something critically important. Jesus said that “salvation” had come to Zacchaeus’ house. What salvation? Jesus himself.
Salvation, then, is synonymous with a personal relationship with Jesus! But...salvation from what? Enslavement to the lie that we can find what our hearts most desire from this material world.
Jesus saved Zacchaeus from slavery because Zacchaeus was seeking freedom, even if he didn’t yet know it. Jesus had come to seek the lost and he saw one of the lost ones seeking him! And both received the other with joy.
In the 2nd Reading, St. Paul wrote these words to the Thessalonians:
...we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every effort of faith, that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him... (2 Thess 1:11-12)
We do well, then, to pray that we—like Zacchaeus—will have the same good purpose of encountering Jesus—and make every effort of faith to seek him out...and to discover—to our joyful surprise—that, all along, it was actually Jesus seeking us...that drew us to him in the first place!
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