A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (# 49)
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time – October 31, 2004
“He Received Jesus With Joy”
BIBLE READINGS
Wis 11:22-12:2 // 2 Thes 1:11-2:2 // Lk 19:1-10
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS
One of the most inspiring books I have ever read is Papa Mike, written by Mike McGarvin, the founder of Poverello House, which serves the poor and the homeless in Fresno. In this extremely delightful book, the author narrates how he rescued a drunken man from a gutter, covered with leaves from sycamore trees. In the spirit of the Son of Man who came to seek and save what was lost, including an irrepressible tax collector perched on a sycamore tree, Papa Mike also readily saved an unconscious drunk smothered with sycamore leaves from perishing. Here is Mike McGarvin’s amusing account of the rescue.
One of the more disturbing events took place about half a block from Poverello. It was winter, and raining hard. The streets in that part of town often had poor drainage, and our block was exceptionally bad. I don’t remember why, but I was walking along F Street that day. I passed by a huge puddle that had formed in a gutter. It was clogged with leaves from the sycamore trees in the neighborhood, and for some reason I glanced down at the puddle. When I did, I spotted some bubbles coming up in the water. On closer inspection, I saw they were coming from a small fleshy object sticking out of the water. With a shudder, I realized that the object was the very tip of someone’s nose. I reached down in the puddle and pulled a man’s head out, grabbed the shoulders, and pulled him onto the sidewalk. The standing water had been so deep that he had been completely submerged except for his nose. He was covered with leaves, so that he was invisible to any passerby. He was still alive, but I couldn’t wake him up. I ran to the Poverello and called 911. He had apparently got drunk, passed out in the gutter and stayed there all night. As the rain began to pour down, he slept right through it. The water kept rising, and if I hadn’t seen him, he would have been completely under water in a few minutes. When the paramedics came, they took him to the hospital. He survived, but he had hypothermia.
Today’s Gospel reading (Lk 19:1-10) presents the lovable figure of a small, energetic tax collector. Despised and ostracized by others on account of his despicable trade, Zacchaeus was curious and eager to see the celebrity miracle worker, Jesus. Short in stature, he was impeded by the jostling crowd from seeing the Divine Master. He overcame the difficulty by climbing a sycamore tree. When Jesus reached the spot where Zacchaeus waited, he looked up and spoke to him: “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house” (Lk 19:5). According to Adrian Nocent: “Zacchaeus’ conscious motive is probably simple curiosity, yet hidden within that is a secret desire to meet Jesus and enter upon a new kind of life … Zacchaeus’ motives, such as they are, are enough for Jesus, and the latter now takes control of the situation. God has patiently waited for Zacchaeus; Zacchaeus has taken a first step; the Lord now reaches out to him.”
Responding to the Divine Master’s self-invitation to be at his house, the irrepressible Zacchaeus hurried down and welcomed him joyfully. The astounding joy that invaded his formerly miserable self was a sign of salvation. Indeed, we experience the joy of salvation when we respond to the bounty and mercy of God who reaches out to us often in a surprising manner. The mercy of God, with all the kindness, graciousness and loving helpfulness that it entails, was first offered to Zacchaeus, astoundingly, as the latter perched precariously on a sycamore tree. The joyfully renewed tax collector responded to Jesus’ initiative not only by climbing down from the sycamore tree and welcoming him into the banquet at his house, but more radically by renouncing half of his possessions and by a promise of fourfold restitution to anyone he had defrauded.
Harold Buetow remarks: “Zacchaeus was showing himself to be a man of feeling, deeply touched by Jesus’ kindness. He responded to a moment of truth – the moment he knew that God’s love was bigger than the whole world – by letting go of his accumulations of a lifetime. And he went way beyond his religious laws. The rich man was becoming merciful; he was getting through the needle’s eye!” The Church writer, Bede the Venerable, gives an added insight: “Such is the wise folly that the tax collector had found on the sycamore, like a fruit of life: restore stolen goods, abandon one’s own property, scorn visible goods in favor of the invisible, long even till death to renounce oneself and aspire to follow the footsteps of a Master who cannot yet be seen.”
Not to be outdone in generosity, Jesus said to the impetuous, but lovingly transformed tax collector: “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 save what was lost” (Lk 19:9-10). The biblical scholar, Eugene Maly explains: “The climax of the whole story appears to be the announcement by Jesus that “Today salvation has come to this house …”. The divine mercy has been manifested. This meant that Zacchaeus’ sins had been forgiven, for, even though they had not been specified, the supposition throughout is that he was a sinner … Zacchaeus accepted Jesus’ saving love and mercy. This is clear from Jesus’ statement about salvation. His grant of mercy reached the heart. Divine mercy is throughout the Bible. It is one of the themes of the first reading (Wis 11:22-12:2), which is probably the reason it was chosen. But the acceptance of that love and mercy, the recognition of what it really is, that is where the miracle lies. That God loves and forgives should need no headlines. That we accept it does.”
The genuinely receptive and transformed Zacchaeus epitomizes the model response to the saving initiative of the Son of Man who has come to seek and save what was lost. The authors of the Days of the Lord: The Liturgical Year, vol. 6, delineate the challenge of this Sunday’s Gospel parable for us: “Occuring during the last stage of Jesus’ life, what happened at Jericho illuminates the importance of the events that will take place at Jerusalem, and it teaches us, through a remarkable example, how we can participate in them. One could even say that the call and the conversion of Zacchaeus constitute a sort of summary of the whole of Luke’s Gospel. In Jesus we see the true face of God the Father who forgives whomever is converted. Receiving salvation joyfully involves not only not doing evil to others but also being cheerfully rid of all that might slow one down on the road to Jerusalem, on which Jesus draws us … The Church is a collection of pardoned sinners who have become children of Abraham by their faith in the one God whom God has sent to seek and to save what was lost. It must not forget this, but proclaim it to all. Not only by receiving those sinners who come of their own accord but by going out among them, lifting its eyes to see those who look on from afar, and inviting itself into their homes: Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.”
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
A. Are there moments in our life when we undergo the Zacchaeus experience and have tried to climb the “sycamore tree”? Identify them and relive the intense feelings and the challenges of these experiences.
B. In responding to the Son of Man who comes to seek and save what was lost, are we ready to imitate the wonderful, radical response of Zacchaeus: “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” (Lk 19:8)?
C. Personally and as a Church, in what ways do we participate in the saving mission of Jesus, the Son of Man who comes to seek and save what was lost?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: Loving Father,
at times we feel miserable and sinful,
rejected and unloved.
But in your kindness,
you allow us to experience
moments of truth and healing light.
We thank you for the Zacchaeus experience within us
of wanting to see Jesus.
With a sense of eager hope,
we climb a spiritual “sycamore tree”
in order to have a glimpse of him
who comes to seek the lost and sinners.
In our precarious perch on the “sycamore tree” of our lonely life,
we await your saving presence
and your kind invitation to come down from our isolation
and to be with you.
As your loving gaze enfolds us
and as we climb down the “sycamore tree”
toward your welcoming heart,
we rejoice in the knowledge
that God’s love is bigger than the sins and frailties
of our desolate life.
Like the radically transformed Zacchaeus,
may we let go of all the burdens and oppressive accumulations
that impede us
in following you all the way
to the Easter event in Jerusalem.
May we be marked by the joy of salvation
as we hear your heartwarming declaration:
“Today salvation has come to this house …
For the Son of Man has come
to seek and save what was lost” (Lk 19:9-10).
We love you, Father.
We bless you in the name of your Son Jesus
and in the grace of the Holy Spirit.
We adore you now and forever.
Assembly: Amen.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“The Son of Man has come to seek and save what was lost.” (Lk 19:10)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
A. ACTION PLAN: Read the Gospel episode (Lk 19:1-9) slowly and meditatively, putting yourself into the skin of Zacchaeus. Imagine that you are the eager tax collector scrambling to get a glimpse of Jesus and scurrying up the sycamore tree to beat the obstructing crowd; flushed with excitement, you finally see Jesus on the road and you hear him talking to you; filled with joy, you break bread with him at the banquet; and overwhelmed with his compassionate love, you now share radically your possessions with the poor. Pray over these experiences and beautiful images that they may help transform you.
B. ACTION PLAN: As a way of participating in the mission of the Son of Man who came to seek and save what was lost, contribute through prayers, material resources and volunteer services to the works of POVERELLO HOUSE in their ministry of providing food for the hungry and caring for the lost and the needy. Send any help to the following address:
POVERELLO HOUSE
P.O. Box 12225
Fresno CA 93777-2225
Prepared by Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang PDDM
SISTER DISCIPLES OF THE DIVINE MASTER
60 Sunset Ave., Staten Island, NY 10314
Tel. (718) 494-8597 // (718) 761-2323
Website: WWW.PDDM.US