Let's be like Zacchaeus

Zacchaeus is a gospel character whose beautiful story endears him to many of us. He actually typifies us who like him also have our own defects and sins, and yet in spite of those, continue to hold a deep admiration and love for God.

He is described as a wealthy man, the chief tax collector of his time. It's not difficult to imagine that he must have committed some injustice, given the many imperfections of our systems. That much he himself hinted. In fact, practically everyone considered him as a sinner.

But all these negative things did not prevent him from getting close to Christ. When he heard that Christ was passing by, he made such great effort to see him that he climbed up a tree, because of the big crowd and also because he was small in stature.

That's when Christ saw him and told him that he, Christ, would like to go to his house as guest. The good Zacchaeus marveled at this idea and readily welcomed Christ to his house.

That's when Zacchaeus was profuse in explaining his predicament to Christ. “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 19,9)

Here we see a man with great faith and a big heart. He was aware of his many shortcomings and sins, and in a way, these negative things enlivened rather than deadened his eagerness to be with Christ.

That is the attitude we have to develop, given the fact that we all also have our share of sins and many other shortcomings. Let's have the faith and trust of Zacchaeus in Christ who, after all, also reassured us that he came “to seek and to save what was lost.” (Lk 19,10)

Let's have the simplicity and transparency of Zacchaeus. This is the way to be happy and to be at peace with everyone-with God and with everybody else. After all, the mercy of God is eternal and universal.

There is nothing that God cannot forgive, unless we ourselves refuse to be forgiven.

Much of the complications we see in life is due to our stubbornness, to our mistaken belief that God is unforgiving, who takes delight in punishing us. While God is obviously concerned about justice, we have to remember that his justice is always at the instance of charity and mercy.

His justice is not like our sense of justice that is often tainted with self-interest and undueness often because of insufficiency of valid grounds. If divine justice involves some punitive aspects, we can be sure that the penalties are to correct what is wrong, to heal what is wounded, to repair what is damaged.

It's a punitive justice that constructs and edifies. In any case, as dramatized many times in the gospel, Christ often glosses over the punitive aspect. This is the case of the repentant thief who did not explicitly ask for forgiveness. He simply wanted to be with Christ in Paradise. Christ understood such request as repentance enough.

This is also the case of the woman caught in adultery. The harshest words he told her before dismissing her was simply, “Sin no more.” And of course, one of the seven last words he uttered while hanging on the cross was to ask forgiveness for those who crucified him, “for they know not what they are doing.”

But like Zacchaeus, let's also be generous in atoning for our sins. Atonement, reparation, restitution and other forms of penance should be a happy act for us. They are a very meaningful act that unites us very intimately with the redemptive passion and death of Christ.

This is how we should view the many forms of penance for our sins. It cannot be any other, otherwise our penance would rightly become inhuman and unattractive. It's only when our penance is a sharing of Christ's suffering that it becomes very meaningful and beautiful.

Let's make an effort to cultivate the many virtues and the underlying attitude that made Zacchaeus a man of great faith and trust in God, in divine mercy, and a man of deep simplicity and transparency.

This may not be easy, since we have to contend with a culture and environment that is averse to the religious meaning of suffering and penance. But we can always start in a small way now. In time for sure, the Zacchaeus in us will just appear, the recipient of the greatest gift of God, his mercy!

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