We probably remember the famous story from Luke’s Gospel, in which the rich young man asked Jesus what he must do in order to enter into eternal life. This young man knew God’s laws and commandments very well, but when Jesus tells him that he should sell all he has and distribute the proceeds to the poor, this young man leaves disheartened, not willing to make a firm commitment to a life of discipleship. This man was searching for something, but he was still lost. In the Gospel today, also from Luke, we hear about another lost soul - the story of Zacchaeus. But this story has quite a different ending.
Jesus encountered Zacchaeus in the city of Jericho. Jericho was a very wealthy commercial town - Zacchaeus made all his money there collecting taxes from the Jews on the behalf of the Romans. Zacchaeus was a very rich man, but he probably had very few friends, since tax collectors extorted large amounts of interest and fines from the Jews in addition to the taxes that they collected, making the tax collectors despised by their own townspeople. The Jews in Jericho would have considered him a thief, a traitor, and an outcast.
It was Passover time - there were hundreds of thousands of Jews passing through Jericho on their way to Jerusalem. Jesus was one of those passing through the city. Jesus was very famous at this time, so many of those Jews who were passing through the city wanted to see him. Zacchaeus was very interested in finding out more about this rabbi from Nazareth who befriended the outcasts of society, even the sinners and tax collectors. In fact, Zacchaeus probably knew that Matthew, a former tax collector himself, was chosen to be a member of Jesus’ select group of apostles. Some longing deep inside Zacchaeus’ heart moved him to try to get closer to Jesus. To escape the crowds and to get a good look, Zacchaeus climbed a sycamore tree, sitting hidden away in its leafy branches. Jesus sees Zacchaeus and is compeled to call him down from the tree, wanting to visit him at his house. The minute Jesus calls Zacchaeus down from the tree and issues him this invitation, joy fills Zacchaeus’ heart and he is converted into a disciple of the world. Whereas before he extorted money for the taxpayers, he now vows to help the poor and to repay four-fold what he stole. Jesus calling down Zacchaeus from the tree is a real life example of what Jesus proclaims in the last sentence of today’s Gospel: “The Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.” Yes, that is what Jesus and his ministry is all about, isn’t it?
I have a good friend who is a pilot. He would identify himself as Catholic, but he doesn’t go to mass every Sunday. But, he has told me several times that the story of Zacchaeus and the tree is his favorite story from the Bible. This weekend, I asked him why he likes this story so much, and if I could share that in my homily today. He said that even as a little boy in his religious education class at St Thomas Aquinas parish in Indianapolis, the story of Zacchaeus made an impression on him, a story of this arrogant, haughty dishonest man of wealth and power who opens his life up to Jesus and is humbled by what he finds. For all his faults, for all his sins, Zacchaeus was a searcher and seeker who literally went out on a limb to find Jesus. Sometimes we are lost in life and we do not even know it. Sometimes we are searching for something in life and we don’t know what we are looking for. We don’t know what questions to ask. We don’t know the answers we want. We are called to be open to change and transformation like Zacchaeus. And sometimes, like him, we need to go out on a limb to do so.
There is a lot going on in our lives of faith right now - a lot going on in the Church. We are finishing up with the month of the rosary and Respect Life month this weekend. We are celebrating our Fall Fest on Sunday afternoon here at St James, kicking off our celebrating of All Saints Day and All Souls Day this upcoming week. I am celebrating a big mass with the Hispanic community on Saturday night for the feast day of St Jude, the patron saint of impossible causes and difficult situations. And in fact, Friday I attended a pastoral conference for pastors at the hospital. Several Protestant pastors were mentioning books that they were reading, all of them written by Catholic monks and priests - Father Henri Nouwen, Father Thomas Merton, and Brother Lawrence, a 17th century Carmelite monk. Our Catholic faith has a richness beyond anything we can imagine, but we have to engage and we have to be open to how God speaks to us in our faith. Even if we are a life long Catholic, even if we are very engaged in our faith, God always has something new and fresh for us to discover. But we have to be open to what is there. We sometimes have to go out on a limb.
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