First Reading - Wisdom 11:22-12:2
Second Reading - 1 Thessalonians 1:11-2:2
Gospel - Luke 19:1-10
The first reading gives answer to the question: “Why doesn’t God do away with evil men?” The answer is that, unlike men, God is benevolent toward all His creatures. God´s love for what He has created becomes a redemptive love through His mercy. God loves His creation, and because of this love He pardons and is patient with people who have gone astray, so that they may repent. God’s Providence for all His creatures is clearly shown through His strength and the compassion with which He both can and does deal mercifully with all men. What the Book of Wisdom tells us is that we could not even exist if we were not loved by God. Through His gifts of Faith and Love, God graciously calls each one of us. Through this Divine mercy, we see the fulfillment of the promise, “For I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more” (Jer 31:34; Heb 8:12). The Book of Wisdom consoles us saying, “You overlook people’s sins so that they may repent” (11:23).
In the second reading, St. Paul encourages the Thessalonians to persevere in their Christian Faith, giving glory to God without idly waiting for the “second coming” of Christ in their lifetime. He advises them to continue to live good Christian lives every day, allowing God to work in them so that they may be worthy of their vocation as Christians.
The Gospel tells us the story of Zacchaeus, a rich man who found salvation when he surrendered himself to the grace of God. The rich ruler was too attached to his possessions to give them to the poor. The repentant Zacchaeus, on the other hand, voluntarily pledged to give half his possessions to the poor and to make fourfold restitution to any one he might have cheated. The story of Zacchaeus reinforces the lessons of the fifteenth chapter of Luke in which a lost sheep and a lost coin are found, and a lost son is embraced. It also demonstrates the fact that nobody is beyond the possibility of conversion.
The story of the conversion of Zacchaeus ends with Jesus’ declaration, “the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.” This man, who had previously considered an outcast, was addressed by Jesus as a “son of Abraham.” Zacchaeus was not saved in isolation. His salvation would affect the entire community, since he would provide support for the poor and make restitution to any he had defrauded. A community would be transformed by the presence of a tax-collector whom people could trust. Zacchaeus reminds us that Jesus continues to call the strangest people from the strangest places. With more than seventy-five percent of people suffering from a conviction of low self-worth, Zacchaeus serves as a good example of how to resist and survive the critical comments of others.
Dear friends, we need to accept the Divine invitation for repentance. Jesus takes the initiative of knocking at the door of our souls, asking for entry. We have one thing in common with Zacchaeus: like him, we are all sinners, and we all need salvation. The total rehabilitation of a formerly sinful man accomplished by a process of discipleship: seeking, meeting, undergoing conversion, and following Jesus Who is God. To refuse to admit that we are sinners is a fundamental impediment to the working of the mercy and grace of God in our hearts. A second, more common impediment is to refuse to listen to the call to repentance, which God so frequently sends out to us. We are all sinners to a greater or lesser degree. Jesus is inviting each one of us to total conversion today by means of this Gospel lesson. Jesus is our loving Brother who died that we might live. He is the Son of God, a God of Infinite Love. Hence, let us expose and confess all our weaknesses and injustices to Him. Let us remember that Jesus loves us in spite of our ugly thoughts, broken promises, sullied ideals, lack of prayer and Faith, resentments, and lusts. He will put us back on the straight road to Heaven. We will become again true “sons and daughters of Abraham.” In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Jesus, acting through the priest in the confessional, ministers to us individually, just as he interacted individually with Zacchaeus. As Zacchaeus did, we, too, need to “come down,” to leave the perches of our pride and allow Jesus to go to work through his ministerial priests.
We need to love others as Jesus loves us, in spite of our sins. Jesus loved Zacchaeus–the greatest of sinners–and by that love Zacchaeus was transformed. How many parents and teachers can accept children lovingly, without first setting up standards of behavior as conditions for being loved? Sometimes we have the temptation to withhold love from people we consider sinners. For example, a husband and wife may have qualities that grate on each other, prompting one spouse to withhold love from the other. There may be a temptation to withhold one’s love from a rebellious teenager. Perhaps our children make choices that disappoint us, and we become so frustrated by the consequences of their poor choices that we withhold our love from them. Our boss may be unlovable and autocratic, or our neighbor may become an object of hatred because of his incessantly barking dog. But just as Jesus loved Zacchaeus, even though he was the worst of sinners, and loves us the same way, so we must love others in spite of their sin. Jesus expects this of us, so he offers us the strength and grace to do it, if we will accept these gifts and use them.
We are called to generosity: Zacchaeus was changed from being greedy to being generous, from selfishness to selflessness. There was a change deep within his heart. Jesus wants us to move from our small and feeble Faith to a greater and more powerful Faith, just as Zacchaeus did. God wants us to be financially and spiritually generous. When we feel the warmth of God’s presence within us, that warmth will, in itself, melt our coldness and selfishness and lead us to repentance and a change of life.
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