2019년 11월 3일 연중 제31주일
오늘의 복음 : http://info.catholic.or.kr/missa/default.asp
제1독서
지혜서.11,22ㅡ12,2
주님, 22 온 세상도 당신 앞에서는 천칭의 조그마한 추 같고, 이른 아침 땅에 떨어지는 이슬방울 같습니다.
23그러나 당신께서는 모든 것을 하실 수 있기에, 모든 사람에게 자비하시고, 사람들이 회개하도록 그들의 죄를 보아 넘겨 주십니다.
24당신께서는 존재하는 모든 것을 사랑하시며, 당신께서 만드신 것을 하나도 혐오하지 않으십니다. 당신께서 지어 내신 것을 싫어하실 리가 없기 때문입니다.
25 당신께서 원하지 않으셨다면 무엇이 존속할 수 있었으며, 당신께서 부르지 않으셨다면 무엇이 그대로 유지될 수 있었겠습니까? 26 생명을 사랑하시는 주님, 모든 것이 당신의 것이기에, 당신께서는 모두 소중히 여기십니다. 12,1 당신 불멸의 영이 만물 안에 들어 있기 때문입니다. 2 그러므로 주님, 당신께서는 탈선하는 자들을 조금씩 꾸짖으시고, 그들이 무엇으로 죄를 지었는지 상기시키며 훈계하시어, 그들이 악에서 벗어나 당신을 믿게 하십니다.
제2독서
테살로니카 2서.1,11ㅡ2,2
형 제 여러분, 11 우리는 늘 여러분을 위하여 기도합니다. 우리 하느님께서 여러분을 당신의 부르심에 합당한 사람이 되게 하시고, 여러분의 모든 선의와 믿음의 행위를 당신 힘으로 완성해 주시기를 빕니다. 12 그리하여 우리 하느님과 주 예수 그리스도의 은총에 따라, 우리 주 예수님의 이름이 여러분 가운데에서 영광을 받고, 여러분도 그분 안에서 영광을 받을 것입니다.
2,1형제 여러분, 우리는 우리 주 예수 그리스도의 재림과 우리가 그분께 모이게 될 일로 여러분에게 당부합니다. 2 누가 예언이나 설교로, 또 우리가 보냈다는 편지를 가지고 주님의 날이 이미 왔다고 말하더라도, 쉽사리 마음이 흔들리거나 불안해하지 마십시오.
복음
루카.19,1-10
그 때에 1 예수님께서 예리코에 들어가시어 거리를 지나가고 계셨다. 2 마침 거기에 자캐오라는 사람이 있었는데, 그는 세관장이고 또 부자였다. 3 그는 예수님께서 어떠한 분이신지 보려고 애썼지만, 군중에 가려 볼 수가 없었다. 키가 작았기 때문이다.
4그래서 앞질러 달려가 돌무화과나무로 올라갔다. 그곳을 지나시는 예수님을 보려는 것이었다.
5예수님께서 거기에 이르러 위를 쳐다보시며 그에게 이르셨다. “자캐오야, 얼른 내려오너라. 오늘은 내가 네 집에 머물러야 하겠다.”
6자캐오는 얼른 내려와 예수님을 기쁘게 맞아들였다. 7 그것을 보고 사람들은 모두, “저이가 죄인의 집에 들어가 묵는군.” 하고 투덜거렸다.
8그러나 자캐오는 일어서서 주님께 말하였다. “보십시오, 주님! 제 재산의 반을 가난한 이들에게 주겠습니다. 그리고 제가 다른 사람 것을 횡령하였다면 네 곱절로 갚겠습니다.”
9그러자 예수님께서 그에게 이르셨다. “오늘 이 집에 구원이 내렸다. 이 사람도 아브라함의 자손이기 때문이다. 10 사람의 아들은 잃은 이들을 찾아 구원하러 왔다.”
November 30, 2019
Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Daily Mass : http://www.catholictv.com/shows/daily-mass
Reading 1
Before the LORD the whole universe is as a grain from a balance
or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth.
But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things;
and you overlook people's sins that they may repent.
For you love all things that are
and loathe nothing that you have made;
for what you hated, you would not have fashioned.
And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it;
or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you?
But you spare all things, because they are yours,
O LORD and lover of souls,
for your imperishable spirit is in all things!
Therefore you rebuke offenders little by little,
warn them and remind them of the sins they are committing,
that they may abandon their wickedness and believe in you, O LORD!
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 145:1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13, 14
R. (cf. 1) I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.
I will extol you, O my God and King,
and I will bless your name forever and ever.
Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
R. I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.
The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
and compassionate toward all his works.
R. I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.
Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your kingdom
and speak of your might.
R. I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.
The LORD is faithful in all his words
and holy in all his works.
The LORD lifts up all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down.
R. I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.
Reading 2
Brothers and sisters:
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,
in accord with the grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ.
We ask you, brothers and sisters,
with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
and our assembling with him,
not to be shaken out of your minds suddenly, or to be alarmed
either by a "spirit," or by an oral statement,
or by a letter allegedly from us
to the effect that the day of the Lord is at hand.
Gospel
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."
http://evangeli.net/gospel/tomorrow
«Zaccheus, come down quickly for I must stay at your house today»
Fr. Joaquim MESEGUER García
(Rubí, Barcelona, Spain)
Today, it looks as if the Evangelic narrative was the accomplishment of the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (cf. Lk 18:9-14). Humbly and sincerely, the tax collector was praying from the bottom of his heart: «O God, be merciful to me a sinner» (Lk 18:13); and, today, we contemplate how Jesus Christ honors Zaccheus' repentance by forgiving him, the Jericho chief tax collector, a wealthy and influent man, though hated and underrated by his neighbors, who felt bled by him: «Zaccheus, come down quickly for I must stay at your house today» (Lk 19:5). The divine forgiveness provokes the conversion of Zaccheus; this is one of the originalities of the Gospel: God's forgiveness is free; it is not that God forgives us because of our conversion, but the other way round: God's mercy sort of impels us to feel grateful and reciprocate accordingly.
As Jesus, on his way to Jerusalem, passes through Jericho, Jesus passes through our life, today and every day, and calls us by name. Zaccheus had never seen Jesus before, but he had heard of him and was curious to know more about such famous master. Jesus, instead, did know Zaccheus and the miseries of his life. Jesus was aware of the fact Zaccheus had enriched himself to the injury of others and was, therefore, hated and rejected by his fellow citizens; this is why He passed through Jericho, to rescue him from that well: «The Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost» (Lk 19:10).
The encounter between the Master and the tax collector totally changed the latter's life. After having listened to this Gospel, ponder over the opportunity God is offering you, which you cannot neglect: Jesus Christ passes through your life and calls you by name, because He loves you and He wants to save you. Which well did you fall in? As Zaccheus climbed up to that tree better to see Jesus, you can now climb up to the Cross along with Jesus and you will know who is He, you will know the immensity of his love, inasmuch as if «The chief among the Publicans is here fitly introduced: For who will hereafter despair of himself, now that he attains to grace who gained his living by fraud?» (St. Ambrose).
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
What is really going on here in the charming encounter between Jesus and the wealthy head tax collector, Zacchaeus? Is Jesus defending a rich guy who has been wrongly maligned by his neighbors? Or is Jesus inviting himself to dinner to create the occasion for a sinner to be converted from his wicked ways? Some commentators understand Jesus’ action to be a defense of a misunderstood tax collector because they take Zacchaeus’s words to be a defense of his way of life; since the Greek text of his words is actually in the present tense, they take it as a description of his way of life. To paraphrase what he says in the Greek, “I (regularly) give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I happen to extort somebody, I make it up fourfold.” Taken that way, the words imply behavior that is impossible. one cannot routinely give half of one’s possessions (e.g. 320 acres today, 260 tomorrow, 130 the next . . . which would lead to total divestment within a week!). As for regularly repaying fourfold for extortions, that implies the behavior of regularly extorting and then making it up with abundant restoration—an unlikely lifestyle indeed! No, the New American Bible translators have interpreted the present-tense verbs more sensibly--that is, in the way people use the present-tense to express a resolve—as in, “I’m giving up smoking.”
This interpretation is confirmed in Jesus’ words, “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 save what was lost.” Yes! Zacchaeus had been using his position as chief tax collector to exploit people; and his encounter with Jesus in this moment of hosting him in his home, has led to a profound change of heart, conversion. And how was he so easily led to this conversion? The tipoff was his surprising readiness to climb a tree to “see Jesus, who he is” (to translate literally). This is strikingly childlike behavior for a figure of some power in his town.
But Luke has provided a context for us to understand this properly. In his Gospel, we have just read in the prior chapter that “whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it (18:17). Then we read about a rich official who is blinded by his wealth, and finds himself unready to follow Jesus. Then Jesus heals a blind beggar who knows that he needs healing. Finally, in the story about Zacchaeus we meet another kind of rich man, one who is sufficiently childlike to scamper up a tree to see who Jesus is. His openness to the truth makes him ready to be healed of his blindness regarding his greed and his readiness to exploit others.
This Gospel account calls us all to seek the truth with childlike openness, so that we are ready to encounter the Lord Jesus and respond to his surprising initiatives in our lives. He might invite himself to dinner.
This reflection was written by Dennis Hamm, S.J., on this Sunday in 2016.
http://www.presentationministries.com/obob/obob.asp
MERCY OVER JUSTICE (JAS 2:13) | ||
| "You have mercy on all, because You can do all things; and You overlook the sins of men that they may repent." �Wisdom 11:23 | ||
Before we sin, the devil tells us that sin is "no big deal," life is trivial, and guilt is an unnecessary hang-up. After we sin, the devil changes his tune and then tells us that we should be ashamed of ourselves, that we are monsters and perverts, and that we can't expect to be forgiven. In contrast, the Lord tells us of His mercy. Paul proclaimed: "You can depend on this as worthy of full acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of these I myself am the worst. But on that very account I was dealt with mercifully" (1 Tm 1:15-16). The psalmist rejoiced that the Lord's mercy was everlasting (Ps 136). As much as the Lord desires sacrifice, He desires mercy even more (Mt 9:13; 12:7). He so desires to show us mercy that He suffered and died, thereby meeting the demands of justice and opening the door for mercy. Therefore, the Church repeatedly leads us to ask the Lord, the Lamb of God, to have mercy on us. The Lord wants to extend His mercy to all: the ashamed, the hated, abortionists, sexual perverts, murderers, rapists, and even us. Accept the grace to go to Confession as soon as possible. Pray: "Lord, have mercy." | ||
| Prayer: Lord, by Your grace may I be merciful to those who continue to hurt me (see Mt 5:7). | ||
| Promise: "Today salvation has come to this house." —Lk 19:9 | ||
| Praise: "We know that Christ, once raised from the dead, will never die again; death has no more power over him" (Rm 6:9). | ||
http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/readings/
"Zacchaeus received Jesus joyfully"
What would you do if Jesus knocked on your door and said, "I must stay at your home today"? Would you be excited or embarrassed? Jesus often "dropped-in" at unexpected times and he often visited the "uninvited" - the poor, the lame, and even public sinners like Zacchaeus, the tax collector! Tax collectors were despised and treated as outcasts, no doubt because they over-charged people and accumulated great wealth at the expense of others.
Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector and was much hated by all the people. Why would Jesus single him out for the honor of staying at his home? Zacchaeus needed God's merciful love and forgiveness. In his encounter with Jesus he found more than he imagined possible. He shows the depth of his repentance by deciding to give half of his goods to the poor and to use the other half for making restitution for fraud. Zacchaeus' testimony included more than words. His change of heart resulted in a change of life, a change that the whole community could experience as genuine.
Faith welcomes Christ in our heart and home
Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) urges us to climb the sycamore tree like Zacchaeus that we might see Jesus and embrace his cross for our lives:
Let Zacchaeus grasp the sycamore tree, and let the humble person climb the cross. That is little enough, merely to climb it. We must not be ashamed of the cross of Christ, but we must fix it on our foreheads, where the seat of shame is. Above where all our blushes show is the place we must firmly fix that for which we should never blush. As for you, I rather think you make fun of the sycamore, and yet that is what has enabled me to see Jesus. You make fun of the sycamore, because you are just a person, but 'the foolishness of God is wiser than men.' [Sermon 174.3]
The Lord Jesus is always ready to make his home with each one of us. Do you make room for him in your heart and in every area of your life?
"Lord Jesus, come and stay with me. Fill my life with your peace, my home with your presence, and my heart with your praise. Help me to show kindness, mercy, and goodness to all, even to those who cause me ill-will or harm."
Psalm 145:1-2,8-11
1 I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name for ever and ever.
2 Every day I will bless you, and praise your name for ever and ever.
8 The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 The LORD is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.
10 All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD, and all your saints shall bless you!
11 They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom, and tell of your power,
12 to make known to the sons of men your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. The LORD is faithful in all his words, and gracious in all his deeds.
14 The LORD upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down.
Daily Quote from the early church fathers: To see Christ, by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD)
"Come and let us see what was the method of Zacchaeus's conversion. He desired to see Jesus and therefore climbed into a sycamore tree, and so a seed of salvation sprouted within him. Christ saw this with the eyes of deity. Looking up, he also saw Zacchaeus with the eyes of humanity, and since it was his purpose for all to be saved, he extends his gentleness to him. To encourage him, he says, 'Come down quickly.' Zacchaeus searched to see Christ, but the multitude prevented him, not so much that of the people but of his sins. He was short of stature, not merly in a bodily point of view but also spiritually. He could not see him unless he were raised up from the earth and climbed into the sycamore, by which Christ was about to pass. The story contains a puzzle. In no other way can a person see Christ and believe in him except by climbing up into the sycamore, by making foolish his earthly members of fornication, uncleanness, etc." (excerpt from COMMENTARY on LUKE, HOMILY 127)
http://www.homilies.net/
31 Ordinary Time
31 Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle C
Luke 19:1-10
"A thing of beauty," wrote John Keats in Endymion in 1818, "is a joy forever."
Someone has written that as Christians we should love beauty. He went on to say that where beauty is apparent, we should enjoy it. Where beauty is hidden, we should unveil it. Where beauty is defaced, we should restore it. Where there is no beauty at all, we should create it.
The latter is exactly what Jesus did in today's Gospel. His subject was a crooked tax collector. With his help, the Christ turned him into an object of beauty. So effective was the transformation that the world has placed the former gangster Zacchaeus in the Hall of Fame. He will remain there until Jesus returns for us.
Imagine what the Christ might do with us if we allow Him. Frederick Buechner writes of Zacchaeus, "He climbs up a sycamore a crook and climbs down a saint." Why cannot something of the sort be said of our own selves?
Consider too that the Teacher does not have to do as much work with you as He had to do with Zacchaeus. The very fact that you are reading these lines indicates that, spiritually speaking, you are more than half way home. With a little more push, you can cease being a mediocre Christ-follower and become a fascinating one. What will you do? The response must be yours.
Peggy Noonan, the celebrated political writer, has written of a stained glass window in her parish church in New York City. It pictures the Teacher standing outside the door and knocking. But there is no door handle on His side. Rather, it is on the inside. It is the person within who must open the door and allow the Nazarene to enter. It is you who must turn that handle. This is what the Zacchaeus of today's Gospel did. Hopefully too you shall.
The Book of Revelation 3,30 puts all of us on notice. Patiently the Master waits for us to push open the door just as the mafioso Zacchaeus did here in Luke. "Here I am. I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me."
Picture the scene. There was a small fellow decked out in custom tailored white toga and baby soft leather sandals from the finest boutiques on the Via Veneto in Rome. He had heard much about this Jesus from his clients before he relieved them of their wallets. He wanted to check the Prophet out for himself. Could He really be that good? The excited crowds lining the roads prevented him from seeing over their heads. He knew they would not break ranks to let the man, who took the eyes out of their head and told them they were born blind, to the curbside. Up that tree he shimmied. Then he climbed out on a limb. By this point, his toga was covered with tree sap. He hoped that the next few minutes were going to be worth one destroyed toga and scuffed sandals.
Finally Jesus is beneath the tree. Unaccountably He looks up. And with a hearty laugh He greets the thoroughly abashed Zacchaeus. He comes tumbling down out of the sycamore. He hears the still laughing Teacher say He is going to put up at his mansion. He suspects he has been had already.
He races ahead to his home. He wants the meal to be worthy of a five star hotel. His wife, who tradition says was named Veronica, sensed a mighty change in her man. Never had he stayed away so long from his money bags. She attributed it to this much discussed Rabbi.
You know the rest of this much told tale. Zacchaeus was swept off his feet. He was born again. The old Zacchaeus was left stone cold dead in the market.
There is a centuries old legend that Zacchaeus became the Bishop of Caesarea in northwestern Palestine. A tradition says that his wife Veronica in a week's time would courageously step out of a crowd crying for blood on the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem. Boldly she would sponge the bruised and cut face of the Man responsible for her husband's new life with her veil.
Both husband and wife climbed out on a thin limb for the Master. Will you be as equally bold?
Frjoeshomilies.net
31 Ordinary Time
Thirty-first Sunday of Ordinary Time: Tax Collector Pt 2–Our Response to Mercy
This Sunday we are once more presented with a tax collector receiving the mercy of God. Last week you might remember we had the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee in the Temple. This one is that short man named Zacchaeus.
In the New Testament, tax collectors are lumped together with prostitutes and other sinners. Why? Why did Jesus and all the Jews consider tax collectors sinners? They were sinners because they collaborated with Rome. They used the power of Rome to steal from their own people. They became rich without doing anything more than sitting behind a table imposing taxes on their fellow Hebrews. The way taxes worked in the Roman Empire was that the Romans enlisted the help of locals offering them a lucrative living for collaboration. Their salaries actually came from their own people. The tax collector got a percentage of the tax, so he would set as high amount of tax as possible. If anyone protested, well, behind the tax collector's table there was a cohort of Roman soldiers to keep the peace as the tax collector, if you excuse my pun, took his piece. So a tax collector was a thief, and worse than a thief, he used the hated Romans to steal from his own people.
The tax collector in last Sunday's parable knew he was a sinful man, and stood in the back of the Temple praying, "Lord, have mercy on me a sinner." That was quite different than the prayer of the Pharisee who was in the Temple to remind the Lord what a great guy he was. In last week's parable, the tax collector left the Temple in the embrace of the Lord.
Today, we have Tax Collector Part II. This tax collector is not a person from a parable but a real life man named Zacchaeus. He was curious, but he was also short. He couldn't see Jesus, so he climbed that sycamore tree to get a better look. He must have been shocked that Jesus would call him out of the tree and tell him that he would eat at his house that evening. Having a meal with someone is a gesture of friendship, even more, it is a gesture of intimacy. The Lord wanted to be part of Zacchaeus' life. Many people grumbled at that, but Zacchaeus, the little man, stood his ground and gave half of what he had to the poor, promising to repay fourfold those he had cheated.
Zacchaeus responded to the mercy he had received. How have we responded to the mercy of God we have received in our lives? Do we take it for granted and go on with our lives continuing to sin, or do we really try to change our lives? Saying, "I'm sorry," and seeking mercy is good, but only if we intend to respond to the mercy we receive.
A number of years ago a young couple came to see me who had a problem in their marriage. The problem was that the husband kept misbehaving, spending money foolishly, not coming home when he said he would, not carrying his part of the household load, etc. After the wife had her say, I asked him if he had anything he'd like to add or subtract. He said, "But I always tell her I'm sorry." She said, "Yes, he does, but he is not serious about being sorry. He just says the words and then continues doing these things."
You see, it is not enough to say that we are sorry and receive forgiveness. We have to do all we can to change our actions. When we say the act of contrition, we express our determination to amend or change our lives. Sometimes, when I say to the Lord, "I'm trying," I hear Him say to me, "Well, try harder."
There are times that we treat the sacrament of Penance like a car wash. Get in, get washed, get out and don't worry about getting dirty again. Pope Francis said that there are no limits to God's mercy. The only limits are the ones that we put on his mercy. Sometimes those limits are refusing to ask for mercy. Sometimes those limits are refusing to respond to mercy.
There are times that all of us are upset with ourselves for our own refusal to respond to the Lord's mercy. Instead of changing our lives, we transfer our upset onto others. We use our view of their foibles and their sins as a way of hiding our own sins. That is why that instead of responding to the mercy we have received by being merciful to others, we behave like the man in another parable who had a huge debt forgiven but who refused to forgive the small amount another man owed him. That man would have been more merciful if only he had worked hard to fight sin in his own life. We all would be more understanding of others, if only we would put up a serious fight against sin in our own lives.
When the Lord entered Zacchaeus' home, Zacchaeus said, "Things have got to change." That's the reaction we have to have when we realize the "all-surpassing good we have been granted in Jesus Christ," to paraphrase St. Paul. Things have go to be different. We have to fight sin. We have to embrace the Lord. Our avoidance of immorality, our decision to bring prayer into our homes, and our determination to make choices that may not be popular with others are all part of our decision to be different, our decision to be holy.
Tax Collector, Part 2, the story of Zacchaeus, challenges us to respond to the Lord's mercy by waging war against sin in our own lives.
Stmaryvalleybloom.org
* Available in Spanish - see Spanish Homilies
31 Ordinary Time
Zacchaeus, Come Down Quickly
(November 3, 2019)
Bottom line: In Zacchaeus we see the key steps of discipleship.
You might remember in June when we heard Jesus was "resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem." The literal Greek says, "he set his face to Jerusalem". We've been on a five month road trip with Jesus: teaching, healing, driving out demons and, above all, making disciples.
In today's Gospel Jesus is passing through Jericho - a crossroads town about 17 miles northeast of Jerusalem. He meets a man who will sum up what it means to become a disciple.
He's a little man named Zacchaeus - the chief tax collector of that bustling town. As you can imagine, Zacchaeus would be reluctant to go out into a crowd. Everyone scorns and judges him. Still, he wants to see Jesus. So he climbs a sycamore - a kind of fig tree with low branches. St. Augustine speculates that the tree has a reference to the cross - the tree Jesus would climb to bring salvation.
At any rate, from the sycamore tree Zacchaeus looks down on the crowd and on Jesus himself. Zacchaeus has spent his life looking down on others. He's richer than all of them.
Jesus sees him and says, "Zacchaeus, come down quickly." To meet Jesus we must come down. Like the Shaker hymn, "'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free 'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be"
When Zacchaeus comes down, Jesus does something unexpected, even shocking. "Today," Jesus says, "I must stay a your house." When we meet Jesus, when we accept him into our lives, he enters our home. Not the front yard, not the porch, but he enters our home. If Sister Carmen or I - or someone who represents the parish - blesses a home, we go into every room. Jesus wants to protect and govern every aspect of our lives.
That rule includes our possessions: my iPhone, my computer, my refrigerator, my car. Zacchaeus says, "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."
on our journey to Jerusalem money has come up a number of times, for example: the parables of the rich fool, the dishonest steward, Lazarus and the rich man. Even though Jesus himself had no place to lay his head and his disciples carried no money bags, still Jesus had a lot to say about money. He warns money can easily take the place of God. "You cannot serve God and mammon." After encountering Jesus, Zacchaeus stops putting money first. He puts God first.
In Zacchaeus we see the key steps of discipleship: 1) Curiosity - he wants to see Jesus. 2) Humility - "come down quickly" 3) Openness - he allows Jesus to enter his home, every aspect of his life. 4) Service: He no longer serves money, but uses money to serve God.
With Zacchaeus we circle back to prayer - intimacy with God in Jesus: Thank, Ask, Repent and Praise. Before meeting Jesus, Zacchaeus lived in isolation - alienated from God and from his own people. Like Zacchaeus we welcome God into lives - by prayer, especially the Mass. And Jesus says, "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."
Alexmcallister.co.uk
31 Ordinary Time
Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
We have for our Gospel reading today the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector who was so short that he had to climb up a tree to get a better view of Jesus as he was passing by. Everyone including Zacchaeus himself is completely surprised when Jesus announces that he intends to stay at Zacchaeus' house that day.
They were all astonished because Zacchaeus was a tax collector and was therefore someone who was widely despised. At that time Jericho, where he lived, was a very prosperous town which was at the centre of the trade in balsam. As a senior tax collector resident in Jericho Zacchaeus would undoubtedly have been a very wealthy man.
Tax collectors in those days were employed by the Roman occupiers under a kind of franchise system where they got a percentage of whatever taxes they could collect. This would mean that the better Zacchaeus was at his job then the wealthier he would be. This was also a reason why tax collectors were invariably disliked since it was in their interests to screw as much tax out of everyone that they could.
As far as the Jews were concerned, all tax collectors were public sinners because they were raising money for the Roman occupiers and as such they were utterly disliked and disapproved of by everyone. This explains why the people were outraged and accused Jesus of going to eat at the house of a sinner. Talking to a tax collector might be unavoidable but going to eat with one meant treating them as a close friend and signalled that you approved of their behaviour.
At the beginning of the story it says that Zacchaeus ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus. Now there are all kinds of trees and some of them are much easier to climb than others. Ask any small boy and he will tell you that the sycamore tree is definitely one of the most difficult to climb since it has very few branches and those that it does have tend to be far above the ground as well as being rather smooth and not very easy to grip on.
Somehow this small man gets up the tree because he wants to see Jesus. His effort was surely a measure of the greatness of his desire to see Jesus who looks into his heart and recognises that Zacchaeus is at a turning point in his life. By expressing the wish to eat with Zacchaeus Jesus tips the balance and as a direct result Zacchaeus spontaneously repents of his sins and offers to make quadruple restitution to those he has wronged. We don't get the reaction of the crowd to this extraordinary statement of Zacchaeus but they must have been nonplussed since they would have regarded him as a confirmed sinner and would most likely treat his conversion with a high degree of scepticism.
There is no more recorded in the Gospels about Zacchaeus and this surely indicates that his conversion was indeed a sincere one. There are later Christian traditions which say that he took the name Matthias and was the one chosen as an Apostle to replace Judas Iscariot. Another tradition says that he became the first Bishop of Caesarea. Whatever the truth of these stories it seems extremely likely that Zacchaeus did indeed make a sincere conversion and fulfilled his promises to make restitution to anyone he had swindled.
The point is that it is a wonderful story of repentance. It shows once again how Jesus could look into a person's heart and draw out the very best in them. It shows also that often the desire for repentance is something that is present in most people but that it often needs the right sort of intervention to bring it to the surface.
one of the remarkable things about this account in the Gospels is the extraordinary statement by Zacchaeus, 'If I have cheated anybody I will pay him back four times the amount.' Repaying those one has defrauded is one thing, but to repay four times the amount is something exceptional.
one of the jobs a priest has in the confessional is to deal with this specific question, that of restitution. Often people come and confess sins of theft or fraud and think that once the sin is forgiven then all has been put right. But this is not the case.
When we steal from someone we are obliged to confess the sin but we are equally obliged to make restitution to them. Having someone else's money rattling around in our pocket would not be a true sign of contrition. We are morally obliged to restore the losses that have been suffered by our victim. Anything less than this would indicate a lack of true repentance.
Of course there are some circumstances where we could be exempt from this requirement especially if it meant incriminating ourselves or causing an over-reaction or indeed if we were simply unable to pay up. In these cases the priest might recommend that a similar amount of money could be given to some worthy cause so that we did not personally gain by our sin and at least some benefit could result. Or it could be decided that the loss would be repaid over a long period of time. This is one of the reasons why we need to confess our sins to a priest since he is uniquely qualified to advise us on the right course of action depending on the circumstances.
There are many things to consider. one of them is whether the loss would disadvantage our victim considerably or not. There is a difference, for example, between stealing from a very poor person and defrauding a similar sum in taxes. The difference lies in the fact that the poor person would be disproportionally disadvantaged by the theft. Any loss that they incurred would cause them a greater degree of suffering than that to the more nebulous government income tax department. This does not mean that failing to pay taxes is a trivial matter. Both are serious but the suffering caused is greater in the case of a poor person whom we have defrauded.
Any penitent has the duty to make restitution for unfair gains they have made as a result of sin. This is something often neglected or unforeseen by those who come to confess their sins but it is an important aspect of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In the sacrament the priest has several roles; he is to listen, he is to mediate mercy and he is to forgive sins, these are obvious. Less obvious is that he has sometimes to act as a judge and the determination of how restitution is to be made and in what amount is certainly an important aspect of this role.
Zacchaeus offers to pay four times the amount. He could probably have afforded it and he wants to demonstrate to Jesus the depth of his conversion. What we are required to do is simply where possible to restore to other people what we have unjustly removed from them. This is justice; this is our Christian duty; this is the basic requirement which demonstrates our true desire for repentance.
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