We are fast approaching the end of the
Church’s year. With the new year, we will move to Matthew’s gospel.
Nothing against Matthew, but I have a particular fondness for Luke -
for the powerful portrait he paints of the merciful, compassionate
Christ. We’ve been meeting that Christ all year long, including the
past few Sundays. There was the parable of the Prodigal Son a few
weeks ago, followed by the story of the healing of the leper, and
then just last Sunday we had the story of the humble tax collector
who stood at the back of the temple beating his breast and begging
for God’s mercy. And today, we get one more story of mercy and
forgiveness in the person of Zacchaeus.
Zacchaeus is a favorite of mine. You probably won’t
find it surprising that I relate to this fellow who wasn’t, well,
all that tall. The only way he could get a glimpse of Jesus was to
climb a sycamore tree! I get that. I’ve done my share of standing on
tiptoe in crowds over the years, including just a couple of weeks
ago when I got to concelebrate Mass with Pope Francis in St. Peter’s
Basilica. Every other priest concelebrant seemed at least a foot
taller than me. Oh, for a sycamore tree!
But my fondness for Zacchaeus doesn’t stop at the fact
that he was ‘vertically challenged,’ as we sometimes say. I also
like the fact that Zacchaeus was curious about Jesus or, in Luke’s
words, that he was “seeking to see who Jesus was.” Zacchaeus
represents everyone of us in that regard, wouldn’t you agree? Is
there any one of us who isn’t curious about Jesus? Any one of us who
of isn’t – in one way or another – “seeking to see who Jesus is?”
Isn’t that what our life of faith is all about? We might not use
those exact words but I think we’d agree that we long to get a good
look at Jesus and to understand better who he is.
And the Zacchaeus story tells us that this desire of
ours to see and know Jesus is not one-sided. Happily, it’s matched
by the desire Jesus has to be with us. We’re told in the story that,
when Jesus reached the tree that Zacchaeus had climbed, he looked
up, called him by name, and invited himself to dinner!
“Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.”
You see what I mean by Zacchaeus’ desire to see Jesus being matched
Jesus’ desire to be with him!
And what happens as a result is life-altering for
Zacchaeus. He’s a changed man because of his encounter with Jesus.
Wealthy Zacchaeus becomes an instant philanthropist, a veritable
Melinda French Gates! “Behold, half of my possessions I shall give
to the poor.” And, not only that - the despised, dishonest tax
collector vows to pay restitution and more. “If I have extorted
anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over!”
What’s not to like about that story? It’s so
encouraging to us. Not so much because our story is the same as
Zacchaeus’ story. It’s probably not. No, for me, the
encouraging part is that our desire to see and to know Jesus is met
by his desire to be with us. And it’s encouraging to know that
there’s nothing about our life – not our shaky past, our failings,
our sins, our compromises – nothing at all gets in the way of Jesus’
desire to be with us. And, of course, when Jesus is with us, when he
comes and stays ‘at our house’ as he did with Zacchaeus, our lives
are completely changed, much like Zacchaeus’ was.
If you think of it, the stories of many saints down
through the ages parallel the story of Zacchaeus. Every saint had
some sort of conversion, of course, but some saints required more
conversion than others. I think of St. Paul, for one, and St.
Augustine, and St. Ignatius - “saints with a past,” as one
contemporary writer refers to them. Which puts me in mind of
something I once read, I can’t recall where: “There is no saint
without a past and no sinner without a future.” I like that, and
it’s true!
In more recent times, we might think of undeclared
saints like Thomas Merton and Dorothy Day. And you could no doubt
add some saints of your own – parents or grandparents, maybe, or
friends - who have been part of your lives. Each of them, like
Zacchaeus, wanted to see Jesus and had some kind of an encounter
with Jesus, and their lives were never quite the same as a result!
This Tuesday we will celebrate All Saints Day, one of
my favorite feasts on the Church’s calendar. I always think of All
Saints Day as celebrating, not so much the saints we make statues of
or whom we honor with shrines, candles, flowers, and prayers. No,
All Saints Day celebrates the saints who will never have a statue
made of them, or a church named for them. It celebrates all the
people down through the ages – including many we have known – who,
like Zacchaeus, were transformed by their encounter with Jesus and
who let Jesus be their companion and friend even when they wondered
why he’d ever want to be. Each one of them stumbled and fell
along the way, but they let God, not human weakness, get the last
word.
My friends, the encounter with Jesus is ours, too.
And we needn’t even climb a tree to have it! He comes to us wherever
it is we are and he invites himself to our house - to dine with us –
as he does now, and every time we celebrate the Eucharist!
Father Michael G. Ryan
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