Homily
for November 4, 2007
Liturgical Year C - Cycle I
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. John Carney Topic:
Seeking Jesus
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Gospel:
Luke 19:1-10 .
. . At that time, Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through
the town. Now a man there named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax
collector and also a wealthy man, was seeking to see who Jesus was; but
he could not see him because of the crowd, for he was short in stature.
So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus, who
was about to pass that way. When he reached the place, Jesus looked up
and said, "Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your
house." And he came down quickly and received him with joy. When they
all saw this, they began to grumble, saying, "He has gone to stay at
the house of a sinner." But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord,
"Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if
I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over.
"And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house because
this man too is a descendant of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to
seek and to save what was lost."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I was watching some of your faces as Bob
read this Gospel
and you smiled because it is kind of a funny story, this story of
Zacchaeus. It’s also a very popular
Bible story, probably because it gives itself to our imagination.
A lot of children’s Bible stories, you know
there are some favorites: Job, Jonah and this is one of them too
because you
can see the tree. A sycamore tree, by
the way, is a very full tree and this little fellow with flowing robes
climbing
the tree and getting up there just to see Jesus. This humorous
story has a lot to say to us
and we can learn a lot from Zacchaeus.
It is interesting that the wording of the Gospel is that he didn’t
climb
the tree to get a look at Jesus. He
climbed the tree and it says because he was seeking to see who Jesus
was. That is very different than looking at
someone. A couple of times in my life,
I’ve been in an area where the President came by and there was a
motorcade. Everyone would queue-up; you
know, hours in advance to see. I
remember one time in New York, I saw Nikita Khrushchev. I was
just trying to get a peek at him. I was trying to see what he
looked like and
that is very different. Zacchaeu can
teach us something today. First, there were impediments for him
to get to know
Jesus, to get to see who he was that day.
He was short. I would use Danny
Devito if I were making a movie here.
See him in his flowing robes climbing the tree. He was short and
there was a big crowd, but
where there’s a will, there’s a way.
There may be impediments for us to get to know Jesus better and the
impediment is generally that of time. We
are too busy but we have a lot of ingenuity and we figure out a way to
do all
sorts of things, some things we shouldn’t be doing. We can figure
out a way to work through the
impediment of being too busy and we really are too busy. A few
weeks ago, there was a study of work
habits; etc…, number of days off, comparing various nations in the
world. Among the developed nations, we work more
hours than any other country. We have
fewer holidays than other developed nations; we have fewer vacation
days. I think it is mandated in many European
nations, a minimum six weeks vacation paid a year. We have
nothing at all. You feel lucky if you have two weeks. I’m
not proud of these numbers at all. Part of this article that I
read stated that
the workers in the BMW plant in Munich have a 33 ½-hour workweek.
Wolfgang, you Germans know how to live. Why did you come here?
To be a slave, that’s the reason, right
there, I understand now. By the way, we are very productive but
is it worth
it? Are we holier? Are we happier than we used to be?
When we used to have carbon papers to make
copies, remember that? Kids, just take a
nap here, I’m going to be going back a bit.
Now we have these amazing machines today that save us hours and hours
of
work: washing machines, dishwashers, and vacuums, whatever.
Forget vacuum cleaners, we have maids. Do you have more time now?
Do you have less time now? Even retired people tell me, “Oh, I’m
so
busy.” “Doing what?” “I don’t know; something. I’m
busy.”
We are so busy we don’t have time for God and we need to use our
ingenuity to find that time. Zacchaeus was motivated and
resourceful. He ran ahead of the crowd and he humbled
himself. Can you imagine how foolish he
looked climbing that tree? Being a tax
collector, a wealthy and crooked man he probably wasn’t in good
physical
condition, so it was a real effort, but he didn’t care. He wanted
to see who Jesus was and he wasn’t
embarrassed. He humbled himself and he
who humbles himself will be exalted.
Indeed, within minutes of climbing the tree, Jesus looked at him and
exalted him. “Zacchaeus, come down from
that tree. I’m coming to your house
tonight to have dinner with you.” The
last shall be first, the humble will be exalted. I think he could
teach us a lesson. We, as Christians in general and I think
Catholics in particular, act almost as if we’re ashamed of our faith.
Let me give you an illustration. If you go to Central Avenue
Grill to
eat, (it’s a great restaurant by the
way. It’s owned by a parishioner and he
doesn’t charge me when I eat there. Min
will be at the next Mass.) If you are
sitting down with your family to eat or you’re with you’re spouse or a
co-worker, let’s make it a co-worker and you sit there and the food
comes, and
you sit there and you go, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of
the Holy Spirit. Bless us o Lord and
these, thy gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty through
Christ
our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.” How many of you
do that? Both of you can leave. It’s difficult, isn’t it?
You know what I mean. There is
something about our culture that any show of outward piety is
considered, “Oh,
I don’t want to be a hypocrite.” All
you’re doing is praying. We don’t share
our faith. We need to not be embarrassed
by knowing who Jesus Christ is. That
should not be something that embarrasses us, nor should we be braggarts
about
it, of course. Zacchaeus was changed by this
encounter with Christ. Immediately, he reformed his life.
He said, “If I cheated anyone, I will pay it
back four-times.” Jewish law required
two times. He says, “I’ll give half of
what I have to the poor instead of ten percent, fifty percent.”
So, that encounter with Christ will change us
too, as it has. We are here. We’re not so bad. The
more we encounter who this Jesus is, the
more we’ll change and always for the better.
We, like Zacchaeus are seeking to see who Jesus is. To do that,
we need to spend time with
him. We need to plug-in to him because
if we’re unplugged, if we don’t take the time to be with him in prayer
and
meditation at Mass, then our batteries run down and we lose strength.
Among priests and religious there is a
saying, “We’re so busy doing the work of the Lord, we forget the Lord
of the
work.” That’s not true only of priests
and religious, that’s true for all of you because you do the work of
the Lord;
caring for your family, keeping a home, paying your bills, doing the
things you
do. It’s God’s work if it’s good holy
work and we forget the Lord of the work.
Frankly, one hour a week at Mass is not good enough. It’s just
not good enough. We need to pray, each one of us, daily.
I’ve been ordained sixteen years and several
times I’ve made a resolution: I’m going to do a holy hour every day,
one
hour. I do well for four or five days
and then something happens. Next thing
you know, here I go again. It’s similar
to January 1st, “I’m going to work out, I’m going to lose weight,” and
then by
February 1st I’ve gained five pounds.
But I know, I’ll tell you this, if I spent one hour in meditation every
day, in front of the Blessed Sacrament, you would have a much better
priest. I guarantee you that and I’ll
say that to you. If you spent one hour a
day in prayer and meditation, you would be a better Christian. Wouldn’t
you? Of course you would. “But I don’t have the time.” The
truer it is that you don’t have the time,
the more you need to do this; if not a holy hour, at least a holy half
hour. Here we go; we are already
slipping. Even daily Mass would be good
if you can come to Mass occasionally. In
this parish, on Monday, about 50 people attend daily Mass, 75 on
Tuesday, 75 on
Thursday, and about 100 on Friday. It is
wonderful. Come to daily Mass once in a
while. You will be blessed, I will
guarantee it. Last but not least, an occasional
encounter with Christ
in the confessional. There he goes
again. Recently, I read that of the 85
percent, half of all Catholics go to Church on Sunday, so you’re among
the
fifty percent right here. Of those
church-going Catholics, 85 percent do not go to confession. What
a bunch of saints. Look at the halos. Oops!
See, I speak to his wife. I know
what’s going on with Bob. Go to
confession. We don’t have to go out on a
limb to see Christ, he is present here, in the Word, in you, in the
unworthy
minister of the priest and most perfectly, in the Eucharist. As
you receive His body, blood, soul and
divinity today, see who he really is, your Lord and savior. By the way, this week there are 169
hours in this
week--an extra hour. How are you going
to spend it? I have a good idea. I think you know what it
is.