In this Sunday’s gospel (Lk 19:1-10), Jesus said that he has come to seek and to save what was lost.
The story revolved around Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector, who, in his desire to see Jesus, ran and climbed up a sycamore, for there people were crowding and he was short in stature. Jesus stopped, looked up at Zacchaeus and said, "Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house." On hearing this, Zacchaeus came down quickly and received Jesus with joy in his heart. When the other people saw this, they grumbled, criticizing Jesus for staying at the house of the sinner. Zacchaeus, however, stood up 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."
It was a beautiful story of conversion. Tax collectors during the time of Jesus were known as public sinners. Not only did they collect taxes from their countrymen for their conqueror, the Roman Empire, they also did so in a very dishonest way. And we have here Zacchaeus, who was not an ordinary tax collector, but the chief of tax collectors. No doubt, the Jews hated him; that is why, seeing Jesus associate with what they considered a heinous sinner was disdainful. Yet the words of Jesus in the introduction of this reflection says it all, “I came to seek and to save what was lost.”
In the First Reading (Wis 11:22-12:2), we are taught about the immensity of God’s power and dominion. Before him, the entire universe is just a grain or a drop of dew. Yet this omnipotent God is also a merciful God. He patiently waits for sinners to repent, just as he did to Zacchaeus and just as he did to all of us. He could have put all the weight of his wrath to Zacchaeus and to us while we were living in sin, but his delight is not to see people perish but change for the better. As St. Paul puts it, “But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Likewise, in the Second Reading (2 Thes 1:11-2:2), his prayer was “that our God may make you worthy of his calling and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every effort of faith, that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, in accord with the grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ.”
Let us respond to this great mercy, not by licentiousness, but by a spirit awed by the immeasurable love of God, that with the psalmist in Psalm 145 we can sing, “I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.” And may the love of God inspire us to turn our backs from sin and face a new life that is filled with the grace of the Lord.