Readings: Wisdom 11:22 — 12:2;Sometimes, the stories from the Gospel make us smile, not just out of joy but out of humour as well. Jesus had a sense of humour as well as joy, and expressed it in some of His teachings. Then as now, appealing to people through humour, especially in pointing out the silliness of our anxieties and our self-seriousness, makes an effective way to reaching the heart.
Instead of pushing his way through and demanding his rightful place on the street, however, Zacchaeus does something one might expect of a child: he climbs a sycamore tree to get a better view. The sight of a wealthy, powerful, and decidedly short wealthy man struggling to pull himself up into a tree must have been quite a sight for the people whom Zacchaeus taxed for his riches.
Note well the order in which this occurred. As a tax collector — as chief tax collector — Zacchaeus would have been among the worst of the oppressors within the community of Israelites. Tax collectors got rich by overtaxing their fellow Judeans and keeping the difference. Small wonder that the crowd began grumbling that this miracle-working rabbi would choose to stay with Zacchaeus rather than offer a remonstration of him in public.
To put it simply: God does not love us because we repent, or when we repent. God loves us, and so gives us the grace to repent — endlessly.
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