Weekly HOMILY for October 31, 2010: What Is Lost Within Us Can Always Be Found!

31st Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle C
October 31, 2010
St. Margaret Parish, Bel Air

What Is Lost Within Us Can Always Be Found!
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato


ZACCHAEUS: A BAD PERSON

Poor Zacchaeus was judged as a bad person – a real looser. He was even convinced of that himself.

It was a conviction, given his lifestyle and what those around him circulated.

After all, he is a tax collector, in effect, a traitor to his own people because he works for the occupying Romans who are collecting tax revenues from the Jewish People.

Added to that, he is corrupt and unethical in exacting as much as he can from them. All tax collectors of the day were similarly corrupt.

On top of that, physically Zacchaeus is a small man, very short in height.

No wonder he cannot get through the crowd to see Jesus. When he tries, the others just look down at him and say, “What are you doing here? This is no place for you.”

And they push him to the outside of the circle they are forming around Jesus. Zacchaeus simply cannot get in.


ZACCHAEUS RESPONDS

But Zacchaeus really wants to see Jesus. He has heard about him and is at least curious.

Or perhaps it is a feeling that even though he has so much, something is missing in his life. Something is incomplete in himself. From what he hears about this Jesus, there just seems to be something that arouses his curiosity about him something that attracts him and he wants to at least see him.

On that sunny afternoon, Zacchaeus, a wealthy individual, sees in the distance some poor boys in a tree and that gives him the idea. He runs down the road a spell and climbs the tree.

Jesus and the crowd milling around him finally arrive, passing by the tree. For seemingly no reason Jesus stops … and turns … and looks up and sees Zacchaeus. Their eyes meet and both men are gaze for a moment.

It is Jesus who breaks the silence. “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.” “What! Me? This can’t be so!” he says to himself. Nevertheless, Zacchaeus climbs down and happily leads Jesus to his home and welcomes him.


ZACCHAEUS, A GOOD PERSON

Notice now, how some of the people begin to grumble.

“How can Jesus, who is supposed to be such a holy person, do this? Doesn’t he know that this man is no good?”

The murmuring grows as all whisper and nod their heads saying that Zacchaeus is indeed a sinner. On this Jesus would agree. They all say that Zacchaeus is no good. On this, however, Jesus would strongly disagree.

Zacchaeus is a sinner. His ethical life is not good, his decisions are wrong, and his relationships are defective.

But, to say that he is no good would be impossible for Jesus to say simply because Jesus knows that Zacchaeus has been created by his Father.

There is a goodness in him that no one can take away and that has been placed there by God.

Isn’t that what our first reading from the Book of Wisdom says today? “For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned.”


OUR GOODNESS

It is this goodness that Jesus comes to reveal in Zacchaeus and in us.

It is this positive good that Jesus finds in Zacchaeus that is awakened and called forth by him. It is this same positive good in us and others that we are to allow Jesus to awaken and call forth.

If we only stress the negative, this goodness will surely get lost, but not in the sense that it is no longer there. A lost key, a lost credit card, or a lost pen is still there, but we just don’t know where and the task is to find it.

It’s like Jesus’ use of lots of lost items: the lost coin, the lost sheep, and even the lost son.

Jesus comes to find this lost goodness and his point is that once it is found it blossoms as quickly and as beautifully as it does in Zacchaeus.

The good news? It can happen in exactly the same thing way – as quickly and as beautifully – for us and for others.


THE RESULTS

So, just think for a moment:

If we receive and embrace this stance of Jesus with Zacchaeus, how much more positively would we view ourselves as good persons?

How much more positively would we enter into the Penitential Rite here at Mass or take part in the Sacrament of Reconciliation?

If we receive and embrace this stance of Jesus with Zacchaeus, how much more hopeful would we be in addressing the stresses and upsets in our relationships?

And finally, how much of a contribution would our accepting Jesus’ caring for Zacchaeus make to the toxic and negative tone of our nation’s political environment these final days before election day?