Homily for 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C
2013
Wis 11:22-12:1 • 2 Thess 1:11-2:2 • Luke 19:1-10
Introduction
Looking at me, you can see, from a young
age, I have always been a short person.
Some of you probably have difficulty seeing me standing behind this
pulpit. And with school boys being the
cruel creatures they are, there are no prizes for guessing what name my
classmates used to torment me with. Yes,
because of my short height, they called me Zacchaeus.
But about ten years ago, I learnt an American
saying, with which I am now able to get back at them: “Good things come in
small packages!”
Scripture and Theology
How accurately this saying describes the real
Zacchaeus! The gospel makes the point of
telling us that he was of short stature; that is why he could not see Jesus
because of the crowd. “So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree
to catch a glimpse of Jesus who was to pass that way.” Then as Jesus was passing by, he said: “Zacchaeus come down quickly, for today I
must stay at your house.” There could be no greater stamp of approval for
this detestable tax-collector than having Jesus as his dinner-guest.
Naturally,
the honour Jesus bestows on Zacchaeus by being his dinner guest causes scandal
among the people; for Zacchaeus is a chief tax-collector and therefore a really
bad man, even as we saw in last week’s gospel.
What Jesus does would be similar to a priest today, having Christmas
dinner at the home of a notorious drug dealer, who gets wealthy on a product
that destroys the lives of thousands of people, or the home of the local mafia
chief who bleeds small businessmen dry through threats, extortion and murder.
Why
then does Jesus do this? It is because he
has come to offer salvation to everybody, even to creeps. It is up to them, if they take up the offer
of Jesus and change their lives. That is
exactly what Zacchaeus does. He responds
to Jesus self-invitation by joyfully receiving him; he doesn’t say, “Oh my
house is a mess; why don’t you come next Sunday?” But he is not just a gracious host; he is now
also a disciple of Jesus. He has been
won over by the message of Jesus, which is: “Repent and believe! For the
Kingdom of God is close at hand.” By
allowing Jesus to enter under his roof and break bread with him, like we do at
communion, Zacchaeus is also accepting Jesus’ message of salvation.
Moreover,
the repentance of Zacchaeus is not just in his heart or in his words; it is
also in actions. For apart from agreeing
to host Jesus for dinner, he also 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." Not only has he decided to leave his old life
of sin behind, he wants to show his conversion in a real way, by concrete
action, for actions speak louder than words.
Remember
the story of the rich young man in the gospel?
He asked Jesus what he should do “to gain eternal life” and Jesus’
answer was: “Keep the commandments!”
Then on insisting that surely there must be more he can do, Jesus told
him “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to [the]
poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” In other words, Jesus wants this man to put his
money where his mouth is. Unfortunately,
that rich young man could not back up his excited profession of faith with
concrete actions of charity.
Zacchaeus
on the other hand puts his money where his mouth is, demonstrating his
conversion in two main ways:
·
First, he pays back all those whom he has cheated, four times over.
·
Secondly, he donates half of his property to the poor.
Christian Life
Something
similar happens to us when we go to confession.
After we have confessed our sins, the priest gives us a penance,
something to do. This penance may be a prayer,
an offering, works of mercy, service of neighbour, voluntary self-denial and
sacrifices. And this penance does the
same two things that Zacchaeus promises to do.
The penances help to repair the damage caused by our sins and they also
strengthen us to keep away from sin.
Repair is needed because our sins leave
scars behind. Sin can be compared to a
wound on the body. When we sin, we cut
open the skin and allow it to be infected by germs. Thankfully, like good medicine heals the
wound on the body, the sacrament of penance also heals the wound on our
soul. In both cases, the physical wound
and the spiritual wound, after the healing, there still remains a scar. Sometimes the scar is quite unsightly and
needs to be removed. In same way,
although we have been forgiven and we have converted, there is still the
business of repairing the damage we have done: money and property stolen needs
to be returned to the owner; things left undone need to be done; insults made
in anger need to be taken back; reputations need to be repaired.
That is why the priest gives us penances to
do. For example, if our sin has been
gossip or bad-mouthing other people, what better way to show our repentance by
taking back those bad words and repairing the reputations we have damaged. Or if we have stolen something, after being
forgiven we still need to return and pay back what we stole, if we are able to. Sometimes the repair we need to do takes the
form of praying for the victims of our actions or even apologizing to
them. By giving back to those he
extorted four times over, Zacchaeus shows us that after conversion we must repair
the damage our sins have caused.
Apart from repairing damage, penance also
keeps us on the straight and narrow path.
Bad habits are difficult to get rid of; we need all the help we can
get. Zacchaeus realized that one way of
getting rid of the sinful habits of a tax-collector, cheating and taking bribes,
was to do the very opposite; give away most of his money and cut his dependence
on material things. We too, after we
receive forgiveness in confession, need to do things that will keep us
good. If impurity has been our sin, we
might want to cut off television and internet, the usual sources of our
temptations. If we have been unkind to
our neighbour, some acts of charity will probably help us realize the value of
others. Often people who have procured
abortions, after their conversion, may want to take care of children or get
involved in activities that promote life.
Our penance, our acts of ascetism, our
sacrifices, our fasting, our almsgiving, our prayers are not simply empty acts
of hypocrisy. Like the acts of
Zacchaeus, they are external ways of showing what is inside our hearts, namely,
our gratitude to God for forgiving us and our desire to change.
This is what Zacchaeus did and that is what
Jesus recognized in him when he invited himself to the tax-collector’s
house. He saw a man, who it is true,
used to be a sinner. But now he has
changed and is a new man and shows in action that he is a new man. Despite his sinfulness, despite his short
stature, Jesus recognizes the real Zacchaeus in there.
Conclusion
Zacchaeus reminds me of a story about a
small-statured president from an African country who went to speak in Texas.
After the speech, someone came up to him and asked, "Don't you feel
intimidated in front of all these big and tall Texans?" "No,"
the little man replied; "I feel like a dime among many pennies."
After he met Jesus, Zacchaeus was the dime,
among the many self-righteous pennies in the crowd. For Jesus, you and I, if we choose to, can be
that dime.
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