Word to the Wise
Tuesday, November 17, 2015 - Tuesday in the 33th Week in Ordinary Time
[2 Macc 6:18-31 and Luke 19:1-10]"Today salvation has come to this house because this an too is a descendant of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost." [Luke]
NOVEMBER 17 ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY
As the Sunday School song puts it, "Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he." The Gospel of Luke has a wonderful collection of colorful characters, and Zacchaeus is one of them. We are told from the outset that he was both a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man. We are also told that he "was seeking to see who Jesus was." By climbing a sycamore tree he realized his goal! Even more, Jesus comes to his house to stay! The interchange between Zaccheus, standing his ground in front of the grumbling crowd promising generosity and restitution, and Jesus, results in Jesus' statement quoted above. Zaccheus may have been seeking to find Jesus, but Jesus was also seeking to find Zaccheus and anyone like him. I am put in mind of some of the grumbling reported about those who disapprove of the attitude and policies of Pope Francis!
When curiosity, moved by the Spirit, [Zaccheus]is powerful and the obstacles seem almost insurmountable [his "wee-ness" and the taller crowd], some folks will become creative in their efforts to realize what faith is pushing them toward. The great Southern Catholic writer, Flanner O'Connor, when asked why her characters could be so distorted and striking, replied, "to the deaf you must shout, and for the blind you draw large and startling figures.' [paraphrase mine]. All Zaccheus had to do was climb a tree. The "wee little man" became great that day for salvation came to his house. AMEN
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