Sermon on the 32nd Sunday after Pentecost [2012]
Beloved brothers and sisters into the Lord,
In today’s Gospel [Luke 19, 1-10] we meet again with „the son of Abraham” (v. 9), ie with Zacchaeus…in direct transliteration, his greek name is Zacheos (v. 2).
He, the one that was perished (v. 10), was recovered with God by charity, hospitality and self recognition.
And, above all, through recognizing of the Lord with rejoice (v. 6). For that the joy, the joyful faith is the mark of confidence in Him that changes you.
We approach by the Great Lent…and we are reminded that joy is the state of being of christians.
Because without joy we not are only vessels damaged.
Without joy we show that we are naked by glory of God, ie by intimacy with the One who takes us out of our loneliness.
Zacchaeus was rich…in sins like us.
He was small of stature…like us…because he was not a spiritual man…but a man avaricious and unjust.
And, like us, he was up in the self-belief sycamore fig.
But we, like Zacchaeus, we need to descend from the tree of vanity and to enter into His house, for to see us as we really are.
For that this is the role of Church’s life: that we see, actually, the depth of our lives…and, in union and good–understanding with others we personalize continuously.
And we see that Zacchaeus raises in himself his taste for communion…only when he is sitting at the table with the Lord…and others in his house.
His house turns into Church then when Zacchaeus understands that man was made by God for fellowship and mutual aid, for fair relations, correct.
But if we consider that the Church is a place where to make money in the detriment of our neighbor…then we get out of communion with God, with the One who called us to communion.
And, also, by the minimizing of another, we do not make more than to become pygmies.
And, in the person of Zacchaeus, we not see anything other than the one that comes down in humility to rise to the glory of God.
For that this descent in humility means self-recognition, means need to share with others the same joys and sorrows of the interior restoration.
And from the last verse of the Gospel we see that the Lord urges us to seek our salvation but and salvation of others.
Because all are called to salvation and salvation is joy with others.
This is the motive for that Church does not discriminate people after nation, race, sex, occupation.
Everyone can enter in Church through Baptism and for all is hope of salvation, if they live according to God’s will.
And for this, Church is paradigm of life by here and by future, because Church makes all to be one.
Only where people are united with God and between them, Church is lived that life sanctifying and deifying.
And Zacchaeus has found his fulfillment for that he has found peace with himself.
Almsgiving and financial reconciliation with others have brought peace in himself.
And therefore he became the son of Abraham because he became the son of the one with many sons, the son of communion.
And the question is: we are sons of communion, of brotherly love? What we do for others and, in the same time, doing for others we do for us?
For we can shut the mouth of those who grumbled (v. 7) against us if we live christianly. If we prove theological and moral integrity in our lives.
Because is need by transformation of theology in our own living. Is need by assumption of Church’s life as daily breathing. Amen.