Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Lord, be with you in this day. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke. Praise you, Lord. 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 couldn't see him because of the crowd, for he was short and stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus 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 Zacchaeus came down quickly and received him with joy. When they saw this, they began to grumble, saying, he's gone to stay at the house of a sinner. But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, Behold, Lord, half of my possessions 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 was a descendant of Abraham for the son of man has come to seek and to save what is lost.
the gospel of the Lord. Today's readings are all fit to have whole retreats preached on them. We see the essential message summarized with a couple sayings at the end of each reading.
For the Son of Man, Jesus says in the gospel, has come to seek and to save what was lost. And Jesus says, I stand at the door and knock. Jesus is giving everyone who was lost, everyone who's a sinner, the opportunity for His mercy.
He stands right there at the door, knocking, just hoping that we will let him in today's the day. Jesus went to the literal lowest place on earth, 853 feet below sea level to Jericho. The one who said he would leave the 99 sheep behind and go out in terms of it to try to find that one lost sheep.
put that into practice today. He went after the most notorious sinner in Jericho, the local mafia dawn, the chief tax collector to be able to bring him to conversion. I've said it before, but the way tax collecting worked in the Roman Empire was the tax collector was assessed a quota for every region. Anything he was able to get beyond that was his to keep.
And it pay off a couple of Roman soldiers and it'd go door to door. And if somebody owed five denarii for the year, it'd say you owe 25 denarii or perhaps you'd like to talk to Julius over here. And so they were like ancient mafia dons would go door to door to the businesses and just say, wouldn't it be a shame if your business were door?
But if you just want to pay for one of my men to keep an eye on your store, I can basically guarantee that nobody will torch it. And so not only was he hated for his corruption, but he was hated for his collaboration with a foreign power that was coming to hurt the Jewish people in the minds of so many. And so Jesus came for him.
Zacchaeus, because he was short, but his shortness of stature was something that would turn out to be salvific. He ran ahead of where Jesus was walking, and like a little kid, climbed up a tree. Think about what that would mean if all of a sudden Pope Francis were coming in Washington, D.C., and various members of the Cabinet.
went and climbed up on trees to be able to see him. It would be weird. But nevertheless, it would show the real desire that they would have in order to be able to get a good look. Zacchaeus wasn't going to allow anybody to become an obstacle. Inopt the tree he went. And I have to say, just so that everybody knows it, it is Tolga!
Girls would not normally climb trees and dresses for a reason. He didn't care. Oppy went because he was laser-beamed on seeing Jesus. Jesus knew and he came to him and he called him by name like a good shepherd. Zacchaeus, come down quickly for today I want to stay at your house. And that was scandalous to the Pharisees who were around because they were the separated ones.
They wanted to separate themselves not just from sin, but sinners, thinking that they weren't sinners themselves. So you would never cavort with sinners. You'd never go over into their immoral houses. Who knows what could happen in a house like that? But Jesus had come to see, can save what was lost, and there he went. And it didn't take long for Zacchaeus' conversion to be fulfilled.
He had lived a life ripping people off. But the very first instance of his second chance, he wasn't going to waste. He said, look, Lord, half of my possessions I shall give to the poor. Pharisees all around.
considered themselves special, because the typical Jew had to tithe 10% of certain things, basically the first roots to God. The Pharisees tithe 10% of everything. And here comes Zacchaeus saying, I'm going to tithe 50% of all that I own. 50% I'm giving over to the poor. He wasn't going to be owned by his stuff anymore, or his acquisitiveness. He was now going to be generous with all that he had.
And then he knew he had extorted much for many. So he said, if I've extorted anything from anyone, I won't just give it back. That's injustice. I won't just give it back with a little bit of interest. That would be quite moral. He's going to give it back with 400% interest. It was a sign of his genuine contrition. He was now going to be a new man.
And he was going to use what he had and the opportunities he had to give rather than to rip off. And so Jesus said to him in the airshot of everyone, today, salvation has come to this house. He reminded them all that he too was a descendant of Abraham as much as they were. And what does that mean? Not just that he has blood in common with Abraham, but that he has faith.
And he was younger than Abraham by the time of Abraham's conversion. He too was a son of Abraham. And they reminded everybody about the purpose of his mission, that the son of man had come for Zacchaeus. He'd come for those like Zacchaeus. He'd come for you. And he'd come still for me. This is the essential same message of conversion that Jesus was giving in today's first reading.
At the beginning of the book of Revelation, Jesus speaks to the seven churches in Asia Minor, in modern Turkey. Yesterday, we had his message to the first and the best of those churches, Ephesus. Today, we have his message to the two last and worst of those churches, Sardis and Laodicea. In yesterday, I gave you the homework of reading of what he said to Thyatira and Pergamum in Philadelphia.
in Shmerina. I hope you did your homework. We can learn a lot, by the way, the Lord doesn't castigate these two cities, but summons them to a true new way of life. He says to the church and Sardis, to the Catholics there, I know your works and you have your reputation of being alive, but you're dead.
There were obviously sort of pay for some good works, but in the inside it was just formalism. Put a terrible thing to hear, but it was medicinal. If the reputation for being alive, but you're faking it, and I know you're faking it, and then he gives him advice about what to do. Be watchful. Pay attention. Be alert. Don't sleepwalk through life.
Strengthen what's left, which is going to die. Not everything is dead new. Start to fan the flames of the sparks that are still there. Remember how you accepted and heard, keep it and repent. Reflect again in the gospel that you received. Resolve yourself to live it. Turn your way around. There's still hope for you.
And then two last things. He wants us to cleanse our garments of any soiling they've received. Our baptismal garments is very baptismal language to look to see where your sins are and get them cleansed. And then finally, walk with me dressed in white. It's not enough just to be dry clean.
with a great gift of God's mercy. But he wants us to walk with him, keeping that baptismal splendor. This is what he was calling the people of Sardis, too. What a great gift that the Lord was coming to do for them, what he was doing for Zacchaeus. We don't know how they responded. It's not in the book of Revelation. It remains an open question. But the Lord says to some of us the same thing, you have a reputation for being alive.
If you're reputation for coming to daily mass, you have a reputation for being a Catholic. But I know your works and you're dead. Some of you are carrying serious sin around. You're living a double life. And then he calls us to be watchful. We don't know the day of the hour to strengthen what's left to keep what we've accepted and heard and turn our life around.
to get cleansed and then to walk with him dressed in white. That is the meaning of our Christian call, not to walk like everybody else walks, not to walk with our clothes filthy, but to walk with him dressed in white, which he makes possible, walk with him in holiness. That's Sardis. Then he gets to loud to see a seventh in the last church for which Jesus holds his strongest words.
It says, the great amen, the great, yes to God. The faithful and true witness says, I know your works. And you're neither hot nor cold. Oh, how I wish you were either hot or cold. But because you're lukewarm, I can't stand it. Very strong words, I'll vomit you from my mouth.
For those who are hot, they're on fire with love for the Lord. No problem there. For those who are cold, they get a chill. They recognize that they're cold. They start to draw toward the flame. It's much easier to convert when you're cold. Your life becomes empty and lifeless. But when you're constantly living at 65 degrees, neither hot nor cold, you can begin to think everything's fine when it's gnaw.
And that was what was happening with the Christians in Laodicea. You say, he says, I'm rich and affluent and have no need of anything. Everything's fine. I'm cool. My faith, hope, and love are in the stop I've earned. Got a retirement plan. Got a second house right down by the Med. Woohoo.
But Jesus in truth says, you don't realize that you're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and lame. You don't even know how sick you are. But again, it's a call for conversion. And this is a super important line. I'd encourage you to take it to your prayer for weeks.
I advise you to buy for me gold refined by fire so that you may be truly rich. White garments to put on so that your shameful nakedness may not be exposed by ointment to smear in your eyes so that you may see. What's he saying there? The most important verb is, bah! Don't just stretch out your hands and let me give it to you. He loves them too much. It's a lot of that to happen. Bah!
I want you to sacrifice, I want you to sell the rest of what you have and buy from me gold refined by fire, buy white garments to cover your shameful nakedness, buy ointment to smearing your rock so that you may see. We all know the background for this. It's the parables of the kingdom, the pearl of great price and the treasure buried in a field. They needed to sell
all that they had to purchase it. But when they did, they were filled with joy because they recognized that all the other precious pearls they had in the collection were nothing compared to this precious one. And everything else they had, houses and property, where nothing compared to that treasure you had found in the field.
So what Jesus is telling the people of law to see it and do is use everything you have, use what's making you presently lukewarm and buy what matters, trade it all in for what's ultimately going to last. The problem for so many Christians in the US is that we're not willing to do that.
We hedge our bets. We'll give something to God, but we're going to grasp onto this because we really don't trust him enough. And so this stuff is our insurance policy. If it turns out that we bet wrong and that God doesn't really exist, at least we're still going to have this stuff here. That's not the bad happiness. It's the road to loud to see it. And so Jesus wants us to look at everything that we have and use it to buy him.
That doesn't mean we have to divest at all at the local pawn shop, but it does mean that everything we have is meant to be used for him in his kingdom. Used to love can be starting, loving our family members, but not spoiling them, can be loving those whom we employ. But again, not spoiling them can be being very generous with the Lord's Church so that his kingdom grows, just like we see in that widow with her might.
But bye for me, gold, white garments, and ointment. And today, Jesus is offering it all on a discount. 100% off. But we still got to buy. We still got to sacrifice. We still got to choose. At the very end, Jesus says powerfully, behold, I stand at the door in awe.
This is the perpetual posture of the Lord Jesus. Lord Jesus is there, knocking. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I'm going to do for them what I did for Zacchaeus. I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me. What an incredible invitation. Jesus is knocking, and he just wants us to open. He's not going to bust down the door. He wants to be invited in.
Today, Zacchaeus shows us in history what that looks like and what the response will be. Jesus concludes by saying, I'll give the victor the right to sit with me on my throne. And Zacchaeus entered and sat with Jesus in his victory because Jesus' victory is a triumph of mercy over misery, of sanctity over sin, of life over death.
Whoever is ears to hear ought to hear, Jesus says. And the whole reason why we're not death. The whole reason we're not death is so that we can hear these words even today. When we were incapable because of our sins of climbing a tree to be able to see Jesus, he loved us enough that he climbed one for us.
so that we would be able to see him no matter how sinful, no matter what pit we were in. He fulfilled the serpent being lifted up in the desert so that the snake, bit, and Israelites would be saved. He fulfilled that as he climbed the cross in Calvary so that we would look to see what our sins had done. And even with
Pinned arms, Jesus from there, knocks still, inviting us to buy from him all that we need today and climb up the cross with him into that celestial tree house that he himself has gone to prepare for us. He's knocking now open wide.
