Homily for Sunday Ordinary 30 C

Luke tells a familiar story in chapter 19 about a wealthy tax collector who kept his distance. “Zacchaeus kept trying to see who Jesus was, but he was too short and could not see him for the crowd; so he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus who was to pass that way.”

I have Mass at St. Isidore on Sunday, October 26 @ 9:30/11:30 am.

frjoedailey@gmail.com

Transcript

A reading from the Holy Gospel According to Luke. 

Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. Two people went up to the temple area to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself. "O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity, greedy, dishonest, adulterous, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I pay tithes on my whole income." 

But the tax collector stood off at a distance, and would not even raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast and prayed, "O God, be merciful to me, a sinner." I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former, for whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted. 

The Gospel of the Lord. 

Luke tells us that Jesus told this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. At the end, in his comment, Luke sets up a trap. The final line suggests the response, "Thank you, God, that I am not like that Pharisee." Once we negatively judge one character and promote the other, the parable has trapped us. 

Amy Jill Levine, a Jewish New Testament scholar, points out that first-century Jews would have heard this very differently. The first reading from Sirach gives us a picture of a God who shows no partiality. The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds. It does not rest till it reaches its goal. The language is almost a command. God cannot ignore the prayer of the humble. Jesus' fellow Jews knew that the God of Israel was generous. In their view, there is enough grace for Pharisee and tax collector both. They knew that the tax collector could be justified. They just didn't like the idea. 

Levine offers an alternative translation to the Greek. Our translation says, "The latter went home justified not the former." The Greek word that is translated "not" can also be translated "because of" or "along with." Thus, the latter went home justified along with the former. The tax collector went home justified because of the Pharisee. Judaism is a communitarian movement in which people pray, "Our Father, give us, forgive us." Each member of the community is responsible for the other. 

Jesuit Father Greg Boyle writes, "Often we strike the high moral distance that separates us from them, and yet it is God's dream come true when we recognize there exists no daylight between us." There is no manipulation in God's love. This is why Jesus told parables, so we can see ourselves from a distance. 

Luke tells a familiar story in chapter 19 about a wealthy tax collector who also kept his distance. Zacchaeus kept trying to see who Jesus was, but he was too short and could not see him for the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus, who was to pass that way. 

Tomáš Halík is a Czech priest who was ordained secretly during the Communist regime. After the Velvet Revolution and the fall of communism, people were finding their way into a new way of being together. In his book, Patience with God, the story of Zacchaeus continuing in us, Halík writes, "When after the fall of communism, Christ's followers came out freely into the open after so many years, they noticed many people who applauded them and maybe a few who had previously shaken their fists at them. 

What they didn't notice, however, was that the trees all around them were full of Zacchaeus's. Those who were unwilling or unable to join the throng of old or brand new believers, but were neither indifferent nor hostile to them. There are all sorts of modern Zacchaeus’s out there. They are on the margins because they may have been betrayed or felt abandoned by the church. Like the tax collector in today’s Gospel, they keep their distance because they do not feel they belong. But they are still on the journey; like Zacchaeus, they are quietly watching and waiting to be addressed. Like Zacchaeus, they long to set eyes on Jesus.

The challenge to us, of course, is that we are the Pharisee. We are religious people who come to church regularly, who try to follow the teaching of Jesus. The faith we express in this place can change the lives of others, others who might never come to this place. Our prayer can make a difference in the lives of others, even in the lives of those who do not seem open to God's grace. 

Divine grace cannot be limited, for to limit God's grace would be to limit the divine. This unlimited generosity is really the problem. We are quite happy when we are saved. We are less happy when this salvation is extended to people we do not like, especially when our dislike is bolstered by seemingly very good reasons like, "He is a sinner." 

Rabbi Rami Shapiro paraphrases a verse from the prophet Micah, "Do not be daunted by the world's grief. Do justly now. Love mercy now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. 

Prayer will always lead us back to one another. It is not about separation, but communion. It is not about my being better than you, but God's grace through me, including you." 

In 2021, in a message for World Day of Migrants and Refugees, Pope Francis invited us to move toward an ever-wider "we." He writes, "God wished to offer us a path of reconciliation, not as individuals, but as a people, a "we," meant to embrace the entire human family, without exception. Salvation history thus has a "we" in its beginning and a "we" at its end, and at its center, the mystery of Christ who died and rose so that they may all be one.