31st Sunday in Ordinary Time C

Benjamin Hummel / Jesus & Zacchaeus

 31^st Sunday in Ordinary Time C

Readings: Wisdom 11:22‑12:2  2 Thessalonians 1:11‑2:2 

 Luke 19:1‑  10

Today's readings emphasize God's mercy that continuously offers the possibility of repentance, even to those whom we, in our self righteousness, may deem unworthy of God's love.  Let us praise the Lord's compassion in the words of our responsorial psalm: "I will praise your name forever, my King and my God!" (Ps  145).

The reading from the book of Wisdom is an apologia for God's loving providence.  It is written in Greek and uses philosophical terminology that would make sense to its original audience: Jews living in Egypt during the first century B.C.  God is the transcendent Lord before whom "the whole universe is as a grain from a balance/ or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth."  But He is also the merciful one who "overlooks the sins of men that they may repent."  All that exists is potentially good and is sustained by God's love. “For you love all things that are/ and loathe nothing that you have made;/ for what you hated, you would not have fashioned.”  God's love and compassion point to an eternal destiny that transcends this material order.  “But you spare all things, because they are yours,/ O Lord, and lover of souls,/ for your imperishable spirit is in all things!”

For the next three weeks the second reading will be from 2 Thessalonians, a letter which warns the Thessalonians not to be seduced into believing that the day of the Lord has arrived so that they no longer need to live responsible and ethical lives. “. . . (W)e beg you, brothers and sisters, not to be so easily agitated or terrified, whether by an oracular utterance or rumor or letter alleged to be ours, into believing that the day of the Lord has arrived.” The Pauline author urges them to endure their persecutions and trials in the assurance that God's justice will triumph over their persecutors.  He prays that God will make them worthy of their calling so that God's name may be glorified in them. “We pray for you always that our God may make you worthy of his call, and fulfill by his power every honest intention and work of faith.”

The Gospel presents the unforgettable story of Zacchaeus as an illustration of all that Christian repentance involves both for the penitent and for Jesus as the agent of God's salvation.  As a tax collector and rich man, Zacchaeus represents the despised sinner in Luke's gospel because he had acquired his wealth through dishonest means.  Yet this stereotypical sinner, like many others in Luke, is attracted to Jesus when he enters his town of Jericho, and he makes an extraordinary effort "to see what Jesus was like."  Because he is "small of stature," Zacchaeus cannot see Jesus in the huge crowd so he climbs a sycamore tree.  His efforts are matched by Jesus' outreach; he announces his intention to stay at Zacchaeus' house:  “Zacchaeus, hurry down.  I mean to stay at your house today.”

In contrast to the self-righteous Simon the Pharisee earlier in Luke’s Gospel (see Luke 7:36‑50), Zacchaeus delightfully and hospitably welcomes Jesus.  When everyone murmurs against Jesus' going to this sinner's house as a guest (see also Luke 15), Zacchaeus defends himself as a penitent. “I give half my belongings, Lord, to the poor. If I have defrauded anyone in the least, I pay him back fourfold.”  Unlike the rich young man in the previous episode (Lk 18:18‑30), Zacchaeus knows that his possessions are to be used in charity for the poor, and that he is obligated by the law to make appropriate restitution to anyone he has overcharged in collecting taxes.  The story concludes with Jesus affirming that Zacchaeus has discovered what it is to be a true child of Abraham. “Today salvation has come to this house, for this is what it means to be a child of Abraham. The Son of Man has come to search out and save what was lost.”