Elevating Promiscuity

A small man with a big heart. That is what best describes Zacchaeus after he encountered Jesus. Before he is a small man with a big amount of money and people dislikes him. What can we learn from this man and from the other readings? To find out, we must reflect again on the three readings for this Sunday.

First Reading Wisdom 11: 22 – 26 ;12: 1 - 2

22 Because the whole world before thee is like a speck that tips the scales, and like a drop of morning dew that falls upon the ground.

23 But thou art merciful to all, for thou canst do all things, and thou dost overlook men's sins, that they may repent.

24 For thou lovest all things that exist, and hast loathing for none of the things which thou hast made, for thou wouldst not have made anything if thou hadst hated it.

25 How would anything have endured if thou hadst not willed it? Or how would anything not called forth by thee have been preserved?

26 Thou sparest all things, for they are thine, O Lord who lovest the living.

1 For thy immortal spirit is in all things.

2 Therefore thou dost correct little by little those who trespass, and dost remind and warn them of the things wherein they sin, that they may be freed from wickedness and put their trust in thee, O Lord.



Second Reading 2 Thessalonian 1: 11 – 12 ; 2: 1 – 2



11 To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his call, and may fulfil every good resolve and work of faith by his power,

12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling to meet him, we beg you, brethren,

2 not to be quickly shaken in mind or excited, either by spirit or by word, or by letter purporting to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.



Gospel Reading Luke 19: 1 – 10

1 He entered Jericho and was passing through.

2 And there was a man named Zacchae'us; he was a chief tax collector, and rich.

3 And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not, on account of the crowd, because he was small of stature.

4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way.

5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchae'us, make haste and come down; for I must stay at your house today."

6 So he made haste and came down, and received him joyfully.

7 And when they saw it they all murmured, "He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner." 8 And Zacchae'us stood and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded any one of anything, I restore it fourfold."

9 And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost."



Commentary

The good thing with the three readings is that they all encircle one encompassing theme and today the theme is on God’s big love for mankind specially to those who had gone astray.

The first reading is a great testimony to that love. The book of Wisdom describes the relationship of the universe to God. There is a comparison given; God is so great while the universe is so tiny and seem to be worthless. The reading differentiated God and the universe as Creator and creation. The Creator is a necessary being while the creation is very much a contingent being. It shows how contingent are everything in this world and everyone except for God. Despite all these, God is giving so much love and mercy for the creation. Simply for the reason that He is the Creator and He cannot abandon those He owns. God cares about the creation because they are desirable for him. There is innate goodness in every creature, in every man. God know how we are created. That is why even sinners are given chances to change and God is making room for their mistakes. God is obviously waiting for sinners to repent.

The second reading is always for the bishops and cardinals [also for ministers of the word and missionaries] so it is more of an encouragement. That these people may remain true to their calling as ministers and missionaries of the Kingdom is what Saint Paul wants to convey. It is also an opportunity for us to see if the people ministering to us are truly cardinals and bishops of the Catholic Church. Saint Paul may be referring here to ministers who lack encouragements and who are getting weaker in their mission to evangelize. They have to remember their calling and that is to glorify God in every way they can. They must also remember that only God in return can glorify them and not themselves alone. That without the grace of God they are nothing. They are contingent beings dependent on the creator. In this way, people of the Catholic Church should pray for them.

The Gospel is the summit of the two readings. Here we see on the one hand a concrete story of how God was described in the first reading. On the other hand we also see in this story how the Catholic Church elders should conduct themselves to glorify God. Zacchaeus, an example of a worthless person in the sight of the Jews was given relevance by Jesus himself. While Jesus is on His way to Jericho He made room for the repentance of a sinner. That is a character of a minister of God. One who is willing to go out of his way to attend to a person who needs to encounter the greatness and clemency of God. Zacchaeus is an example of a person outside of the Church or maybe he is inside but never really there spiritually. There are hindrances on his way to enter the Church, to commune with God. He longs to see the face of Jesus but cannot because of the two hindrances. One is internal or personal and the other is external factor or environment. First, he is short in stature and second there is a multitude of crowd who blocks his way to Jesus. The first one maybe a representation of the persons personal shortage or lack. It may not always be lack of height but lack of prayer life. The crowd may represent some external blocks that delays his enter to the Church. However, he made a choice to rise above the hindrances. That’s what pilots do when there are weather disturbances—they rise above the storms. He climbed the three to see Jesus. He Repositioned himself. He did not give up in finding a way. That is something good in him. There he was able to see Jesus and not only that, Jesus saw him. In raising above the storm he found Jesus and Jesus met with him there. Jesus called him by name. Something that gives us a proof of the first reading’s thesis. God cares about His creation, He knows their names. After his encounter with the Lord, Zacchaeus made a bold decision to give up all his wealth. That is not an easy thing to do. I remember there was a rich man who asked Jesus how to have eternal life. Jesus told him that he must go sell all his belongings and give them to the poor. The young man went away sad because he cannot do that. But here is a taxcollector who is willing to give up all he has. There must be something in that meal with Jesus. Jesus invited himself to dine with Zacchaeus. There must be something. Here we see the deep longing of the Divine to be with us and by Zacchaeus act of climbing the tree we see also the deep longing of humanity to be with the Divine. We can meet the Lord by changing our point of view. What is left with Zacchaeus? If he will give half of his possessions to the poor and return fourfold what he extorted from the innocent tax payers, then what is left? Nothing! That is why Jesus posited him saying, “Salvation has come to this house” because Zacchaeus at last realized that he is nothing in front of God and yet Jesus dined with him and made time to call him by name. This is what the second reading is warning the bishops of. Maybe they thought of glorifying only themselves and not the God who graced them with that ministry.

Something always happens when a person encounter the Lord in a sincere and humble way. That is why Zacchaeus can be called a small man with a huge heart. But greater still is the heart of God.



Application

Tomorrow is November 1. What supposed to be a day of celebrating the saints became a day of paganism, superficiality, and consumerism. The feast itself became a distraction for Catholic Christians to pray because of the crowd. When there are so many people around we are distracted in our prayer life. Never let this occasion hinder you to see the face of Jesus. Climb the tree, it is in anew point of view that you can Jesus.

Second, the Letter of Saint Paul to Thessalonians reminds us to pray for the ministers of the Church, those who are called to evangelize. Pray that in their actions they may glorify God.

Now that we learned God's undying love for humanity and how He gives special preference to those who have sinned. It is high time to renew our lives like what the tax collector did. All Saints Day reminds us that we can rise from those stumbling blocks on our way. Saints are not sinless but sinned less during their life time. May it be our goal to sin less and less everyday and become more and more like Jesus.

Jesus ministered to those repentant people. As a mirror of Jesus, the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church is mandated to do likewise. It is the call of everyone of us not just bishops and priests to attend to the needy.Have some time to visit the prisoners, those in the rehabilitation centers. Reflect on the kind of treatment you are giving to those who are ex convict and those who are despised by the community. Are we like the crowd who after seeing Jesus entered the house of Zacchaeus gossiped and questioned His dealing with the tax collector? We should not be like them. We have to be like Jesus who after all of what a publican did, opened His heart for him.