Salvation Making a House Call, 33rd Tuesday (I), November 16, 2021

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Visitation Mission of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Tuesday of the 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, Year I
Memorial of St. Gertrude the Great and St. Margaret of Scotland
November 16, 2021
2 Mc 6:18-31, Ps 3, Lk 19:1-10

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

The following points were attempted in the homily:

• Jesus’ love for sinners was so profound that he literally went to the lowest place on earth in search of perhaps the greatest public sinner of that city, to reconcile him to the Father. Jesus went to Jericho, the lowest city on the planet — 853 feet below sea level — to find Zacchaeus, who was not just one of a bunch of tax-collectors loathsome to the Jewish authorities, but the chief tax collector of the region. Jesus had promised that he, the Good Shepherd, would leave the ninety-nine sheep in his fold to search out and save one lost sheep, and this is what he did, leaving the crowds behind and entering alone with Zacchaeus into his home and into his life. He called Zacchaeus, his lost sheep, by name and heaven rejoiced on that day more for him than for all the others. So, too, today and everyday, Jesus takes the initiative of knocking at the door of our souls, asking for entry, coming to us wherever we are, no matter the depths to which we’ve sunk, no matter the fact that perhaps everyone else around us might despise us. Jesus never abandons us. To the extent that we repent of whatever sins we’ve committed and accept Jesus’ gracious invitation by “welcoming him with delight,” we, too, like Zacchaeus, can have salvation come to us.
• The diminutive Zacchaeus’ climbing of the tree, moreover, is more than merely an interesting detail. In yesterday’s reading, we encountered Bartimaeus, the blind man begging by the roadside in Jericho, who cried out for mercy and when Mercy incarnate called for him and asked what he wished, he replied “Lord, I want to see.” He not only wanted to regain his lost sight but he wanted to see Jesus so that he might follow him and glorify God. Today Zacchaeus, who had not lost his physical sight, still had to work in order to see, follow and glorify. St. Luke tells us that he was trying to see Jesus, but could not because of the crowd, so he ran ahead and climbed a tree along Jesus’ route in order to be able to see him. We, too, often cannot see the Lord because other people get in the way. They block our sight in countless ways. We’re often too small of stature to see over such obstacles, and, unfortunately, too often others are too selfish, distracted, sinful, judgmental or out-of-it, to do anything to help us and bring us into the presence of the Lord. Like a little child, however, Zacchaeus climbs a tree to see the Lord. Such an act could have led to great mockery for a middle-aged public figure. Think about if you saw the head of the IRS or some cabinet official climbing a telephone pole in order to get a better glimpse of the Pope during a papal visit. But Zacchaeus didn’t care. He wanted to see the Lord and none of these obstacles was going to stop him. His example challenges each of us to consider what is the extent to which we go, what trees or obstacles we’ll climb, in order to see Jesus better and more clearly. Are we capable of being accounted fools for Christ for following those means that others might consider silly if they will bring us into greater relationship with Jesus?
• The third thing this episode with Zacchaeus teaches us is that a true conversion to God also brings about a real conversion to others. The rehabilitation of our relationship with God is not meant to remain private, but is supposed to help us reexamine our relationship with others and inspire us to repair whatever harms we have caused. Even though Zacchaeus, like his fellow tax-collectors, would have been guilty of ripping off the people of Jericho by unregulated over-taxation, he knew that he needed to make amends and to use the gift of his office to do good rather than evil. So he told Jesus, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” Strict justice would have required his giving back what he had overcharged. If he had really wanted to be kind, he could have given it back with modest interest. But he was going to give it back with four-hundred perccent interest, which was a sign of great contrition for the gravity of his previous sins of stealing and intimidation. Moreover, a strictly observant religious Jew would give ten percent of his income over to God and the poor. Zacchaeus committed himself to giving fifty percent of his income to those who were needy, which was a sign of great love and a recognition that others needed his money more than he did. From that point forward, he was going to be an honest tax collector, a Christian tax collector, an exemplary public official, and a good man, and use his position and wealth for his salvation and sanctification and for that of others. Zacchaeus would use his riches, use everything that God gave him, for building up God’s kingdom. We’re called to do the same with whatever God has given us.
• In order to see Jesus and keep our eyes on him, we need perseverance. We need faith. In today’s first reading, we have one of the great examples of faithful perseverance, courage and good example in Eleazar, a nonagenarian Jew whom the Greeks in 142 BC were trying to force to eat pork in violation of the Mosaic Law. The Greek authorities opened up Eleazar’s mouth and jammed it with pork, but he spat it out, knowing that the penalty for doing so was death. I’ll let the author of the Second Book of Maccabees take it from there: “Those in charge of that unlawful ritual meal took the man aside privately… and urged him to bring meat of his own providing… and to pretend to be eating some of the meat of the sacrifice prescribed by the king; in this way he would escape the death penalty, and be treated kindly because of their old friendship with him. But he made up his mind in a noble manner, worthy of his years, the dignity of his advanced age, the merited distinction of his gray hair, and of the admirable life he had lived from childhood; and so he declared that above all he would be loyal to the holy laws given by God: ‘At our age it would be unbecoming to make such a pretense; many young men would think the ninety-year-old Eleazar had gone over to an alien religion.  Should I thus dissimulate for the sake of a brief moment of life, they would be led astray by me, while I would bring shame and dishonor on my old age.  Even if, for the time being, I avoid the punishment of men, I shall never, whether alive or dead, escape the hands of the Almighty.  Therefore, by manfully giving up my life now, I will prove myself worthy of my old age, and I will leave to the young a noble example of how to die willingly and generously for the revered and holy laws.’ Those who shortly before had been kindly disposed, now became hostile toward him because what he had said seemed to them utter madness.  When he was about to die under the blows, he groaned and said: ‘The Lord in his holy knowledge knows full well that, although I could have escaped death, I am not only enduring terrible pain in my body from this scourging, but also suffering it with joy in my soul because of my devotion to him.’  This is how he died, leaving in his death a model of courage and an unforgettable example of virtue not only for the young but for the whole nation” (2 Macc 6:18-31). At the very end of his life, St. Paul wrote to St. Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith (2 Tim 4:7). Eleazar went out fighting that fight, finishing the marathon of life, maintaining the treasure of faith and being unwilling to betray the faith and the Lord who inspires it even to save one’s life here on earth. He kept his eyes on God and resolutely persevered in that vision no matter what threats came or what sufferings he endured. He teaches us that the older one gets, the closer one gets to seeing God face-to-face, the holier, more courageous and more faithful one should be.
• Today the Church celebrates two saints who show us how to keep our eyes perseveringly on the Lord. Saint Gertrude the Great was brought to the Monastery at a very early age, either for her education or because she was orphaned. She was an extraordinary student, who learned everything that the classical formation of the day could provide, throwing herself into profane subjects and to literature, music, song and art. She was surrounded by holy nuns, but wasn’t profiting. Even though she wasn’t living a life of sin, she really wasn’t loving the Lord, she really wasn’t seeing what he was wanting of her. After 20 years of study and of sharing in their liturgical prayer, God helped her to grasp that she had been giving herself over much of the time to vanities. In 1280, when she was in her mid-20s, the Lord opened her eyes to recognize that she was basically living in a worldly way. Her conversion involved a different type of study, passing from profane humanistic studies to the study of theology and of divine wisdom; a different type of obedience, from negligence to intense mystical prayer coupled to a zeal for the salvation of all; and a different spirituality, from spiritual worldliness to the spirituality of the kingdom. She wrote in her Spiritual Exercises something that pointed to how, post-conversion, she wanted to use the gifts God had given her: “I have so little profited from your graces that I cannot resolve to believe that they were lavished upon me solely for my own use, since no one can thwart your eternal wisdom. Therefore, O Giver of every good thing who has freely lavished upon me gifts so undeserved, in order that, in reading this, the heart of at least one of your friends may be moved at the thought that zeal for souls has induced you to leave such a priceless gem for so long in the abominable mud of my heart.” She loved, making up for lost time, and helping others be cured of whatever prevented them from beholding the love of God. She began regularly to climb whatever trees were necessary in prayer to see Jesus and afterward she sought to share what God showed her with others. She showed perseverance, especially in her famous prayer for the holy souls in Purgatory, for whom the Church prays with particularly persevering insistence in the month of November, beseeching God enduringly: “Eternal Father, I offer You the most precious blood of thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, for those in my own home and in my family. Amen.”
• The second witness is of perseveringly seeking the face of Jesus is St. Margaret Queen of Scotland, who, because of her very busy life, needed regularly to overcome potential obstacles to see him. The daughter of a Hungarian Princess and Anglo-Saxon Prince, she and her family fled from William the Conquerer and were shipwrecked off the coast of Scotland, where Scottish King Malcolm befriended them and was captivated by Margaret, whom he married in 1070. She helped him become virtuous and was allowed by him, essentially, to become interior minister of the kingdom. She improved arts and education, reformed the country and the clergy religiously through synods she promoted and founded many Churches and monasteries. She had eight kids and supervised their religious instruction. Her love for Jesus in the Eucharist helped her to grow in love and care for those for whom he died, and on her way home from Mass would often wash the feet of six poor persons and give them alms. She never refused beggars or sat down to eat without first feeding orphans and poor adults. She recognized in both the Eucharist as well as in the poor Jesus himself. We witness in her how someone as a mom of eight with a “full-time job” as “secretary of the interior” not to mention all of the duties of State in hosting was able not only to retain the love she had at first but to grow in it.
• Today we turn to the Lord and thank him for the example of Zacchaeus and Eleazar and for the intercession of Saints Gertrude and Margaret. We thank the Lord for continually coming to save us, no matter how far we’ve sunk, and no matter how many times we’ve fallen, for calling us by name, and for inviting himself literally inside of us to abide in us and have us abide in him. We thank him in advance as well for the graces he’ll give us so that we can with him climb whatever sycamores or redwoods we have to in order to see him more clearly. But most of all we thank him for going one step further. When we and the whole human race were incapable of seeing him on account of the great weight of sin which was reducing our humanity to smaller and smaller images of what we are called to be, and thereby when we were incapable of climbing any tree at all, he, out of his great love for us, climbed one on our behalf, so that each of us, dying and wailing like the serpent-bit Jews in the desert, might still be able to see him, perched upon his glorious wooden throne. He invites each of us here and now in this Eucharistic participation in his death and resurrection, to be lifted up by him onto that life-giving tree. Today, with Zacchaeus and Eleazar, Margaret and Gertrude, let us pick up that Cross — our cross! — and thereby be picked up by it, so that as God’s children we might spend eternity in that celestial tree house built upon the Cross’ firm foundation.

The readings for today’s Mass were:

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