Oct. 30, 2022 – Wisdom 11:22-12:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:11-2:2 and Luke 19:1-10
The first reading focuses on the merciful love God has for all that he has created, a love that gives everyone time for repentance.
In the Responsorial Psalm (Ps 145), the Psalmist also tells us that the Lord is good to all and that his compassion covers all that he has done. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and great in love (Ps. 145:8).
In the second reading, St. Paul encourages the Thessalonians to persevere in the Christian faith, thus giving glory to God without lazily waiting for the “second coming” of Christ in their lives. He advises them to live
every day as good Christians, letting God work in them so that they may be worthy of their calling.
Today’s gospel presents the instantaneous conversion of the publican Zacchaeus.
Jesus, toward the end of the journey to Jerusalem, passes through the border town of Jericho. In that town there is a man named Zacchaeus who is not only a publican, but head of the publicans, which means, as Luke’s Gospel explains, that he is rich. He wants to see Jesus, but because he is short he cannot see past the crowd, so he climbs a tree. When Jesus arrives at the place where Zacchaeus has perched, he calls him and invites himself into his house, which at the same time cheers Zacchaeus but scandalizes the crowd, because they know Zacchaeus is a sinner.
Among the various details of this episode, recounted only by Luke, three characteristics stand out: sight, wealth and littleness.
Sight, wanting to see is crucial is the first step in receiving Jesus’ grace. In the passage immediately preceding this one, a blind man receives sight and, in response, follows Jesus and glorifies God. Now, Zacchaeus desires to see Jesus, but while he is trying to catch a glimpse of this prophet, Jesus looks up, calls him down and honors him by going to stay at his house.
Wealth and the issues surrounding it are for Luke, more than any other evangelist, a cause for concern because their use concerns the treatment of the poor. In the previous chapter a rich man, when asked to give away everything he had, had turned away from Jesus with sadness. When Jesus declares that it is almost impossible for the rich to enter the kingdom of God, the disciples-who like the Jews of their time believe that wealth is a sign of God’s favor-are incredulous. In contrast, Zacchaeus, another rich man receives Jesus with joy and gives half of his wealth to the poor and returns, quadrupling it, any amount he may have defrauded. The impossible happened because “salvation has come to this house” (19:9).
Zacchaeus’ littleness is not only about physical stature but also about moral situation. His people, no doubt, despised him; hence their reaction when Jesus invites himself to Zacchaeus’ house. This is not the first time the crowd has been outraged by Jesus’ behavior. Think of Simon’s reaction when Jesus allowed a woman of ill repute to wash his feet with her tears (7:39) or the Pharisees’ reaction toward sinners and publicans who loved to listen to Jesus (15: 1-2). Nor is this the first time that tax collectors figured prominently in Jesus’ mission.

It is not very easy to understand the conversion of Zacchaeus, of this “ugly person” who is moved by curiosity and interest in the prophet of whom so much was heard, to the point of climbing a tree in order to see him, since his short stature was an impediment. Even before he sees him, Zacchaeus is seen by Jesus: this aspiration of his, which led him to climb a sycamore tree to wait for the Lord to pass by, is a sign of inner readiness-and of much else that we do not know, but which Christ intercepts as a door to enter this man’s heart.
The essential keys for reading
– “Zacchaeus”: Jesus calls him by his proper name.
– “Climb the Tree”: we must climb… to overcome the obstacles of our
littleness.
– “Come down,” it’s as if he is saying to him, “Come back to the ground, adhere to the earth: the extraordinary served you
served you for a moment, but now return to your everyday condition, to your
small stature!”
– “Now, quickly”: there is no time to waste, the opportunity is to be grasped without delay!
– “Today”: not yesterday nor tomorrow. This adverb is a key word in Luke, from the birth
of Jesus when the angels announce to the shepherds, “Today, in the city of David, a Savior has been born to you, who is Christ the Lord” (Lk. 2:11); to the beginning of his public activity, when in the synagogue at Nazareth he delivers that very brief homily, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your ears” (Lk. 4:21); then a few more times, up to the hour of the cross, when Jesus says to the “good thief,” “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Lk. 23:43). Always we meet Jesus today!
– “I must, it is necessary”: another key word in Luke (impersonal verb deî, which appears 18 times in this gospel, from Lk 2:49 to Lk 24:44). It expresses the way in which Jesus, in his full freedom, goes out to meet the human and divine necessity of passion, fulfilling God’s will of salvation for all people.
– Not “stop me,” which seems to indicate a quick stop, but ménein, that is, “remain, dwell” with you. The same occurs for the Risen One with the disciples of Emmaus.
– “In your house”: entering another’s house means sharing intimacy with him; specifically, Zacchaeus being a public sinner, this self-invitation of Jesus means compromising scandalously with his sin.
Good workers…
– God, in his infinite mercy, is not content to convert men and forgive them, but offers each one his friendship, inviting each one to fellowship with him. If we, too, do not climb over a sycamore tree, does that not mean shying away from the risk that this moment of grace, this opportunity, will pass uselessly by? We must run ahead, lurk to make the encounter possible.
– This is life according to the Gospel of Christ: we must believe in our own conversion, we must believe that we can change, we must believe that the past is not a destiny. To those who asked him, “Abba, what are you doing today?”, Anthony, the monks’ father, now in his nineties replied, “I am starting over today.” Jesus’ encounter with Zacchaeus teaches us that this today it is always possible to begin again. Nothing and no one can oppose God’s forgiveness in Jesus Christ, which enables us to begin again every day. (St. Ambrose: Exposition of the Gospel according to Luke 8:86)
Fr Joby Kavungal RCJ
TREZZANO SUL NAVIGLIO – MILAN