The Little Big Man in the Tree

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C


Perhaps some of you saw the recent film, Gravity, starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. There are many striking and beautiful shots of the earth from space, as the two characters try to survive in their spacesuits. Even from the low orbit where the international space station works, whole continents are visible at a glance. I didn’t see the film in 3D, Fr. Robb and I couldn’t go at that time, but even then there was a sense of vertigo, of being about to fall towards the earth!

Since humans have entered space in the last 50 years, we have been able to see our planet all at once, seemingly adrift in the endless sea of space. As we have looked beyond our solar system, and even beyond our galaxy, we have learned how unfathomably enormous the universe is. Our scientific discoveries have opened up this new perspective, and we have become aware of our littleness.

Surprisingly, though, our littleness was understood by the People of Israel even before the time of Christ! In our first reading, from the Book of Wisdom, composed some 50 years before the Lord was born in a manger, the author says:

Before the LORD the whole universe is as a grain from a balance or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth.

Perhaps you’ve seen the images that seem to show the whole earth in a drop of dew… and yet the author here speaks not just of the earth, but the whole universe! As we have gained a physical knowledge of the immense scale of creation, it seems to me that at times we have allowed this to obscure the yet greater scale of God! However many millions of light years away the other side of the universe may be, it is all held in being by God’s never-failing love, as little drop of water cradled lovingly in His hand. God’s act of creation is ongoing, sustaining, necessary for the existence of all things. The Book of Wisdom continues:

…how could a thing remain, unless you willed it; or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you?

How indeed could any of us remain, or continue in being, were it not for God’s love? In the face of death or sickness, in the face of sin and failure, we become intensely aware of our inadequacy, our contingency. We rely upon help, support, resources, and even being that is not our own! We do not sustain ourselves, we do not bring ourselves into existence… were God to cease to love us for but an instant, we would cease to exist!

And, yet, He does love us, as surprising as that may seem at times. He is truly a “lover of souls,” a God whose love is perfectly faithful and steadfast, who loves us and sustains us in being even as we so often turn away. To use St. Paul’s words to the Thessalonians, God desires that we would become “worthy of his calling,” that the “name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified” in us. “The Lord is good to all and compassionate towards all his works,” in the words of the psalm.

Not only is this true on the level of philosophy and theology, it is true on the level of personal and daily experiences… we do not explain ourselves, or give ourselves being. But what neither the psalmist nor the writer of the Book of Wisdom could imagine was what God was going to do next… He came Himself! The infinite Lord of the Universe, Creator of All, Sustainer of All, He who holds the whole universe in His hands, much less the world or you or me, God came Himself. Our smallness, our pettiness, our resistance to His love doesn’t keep Him from mounting a search and rescue mission for each one of us, and we see this at work in our Gospel.

 Zacchaeus is a wealthy man, a powerful man… no mere tax collector, he is a chief, organizing other Jews like himself against his own people in support of the Roman tyrant. In the eyes of the world, a big man, even to those who hated him. And yet, he’s a little man, certainly in stature, but there also remains a certain holy littleness, and in his zeal to see Jesus, he’s not afraid to climb a tree to see over the crowd! Now I hope it’s not too hard to picture me climbing a tree… but imagine being at a parade and seeing our mayor, or a wealthy local businessman, or Bill Gates, climb a tree to see the Goldenaires going by at a parade! Zacchaeus forgot his wealth, his power, his political stature, this fell by the wayside, in his longing to gaze upon the Lord Jesus’ face.

Thus far, we see human longing for God. What happens next, though, is all the more surprising and paradoxical. Jesus notices the little big man up in the tree, He looks up, sees him, and calls out to him, “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.” Zacchaeus could only climb, gaze, hope to see the Lord… but God-Incarnate looked up to him, looked him in the eyes, called him by name, and went to his home. The Son of Man “has come to seek and to save what was lost.”

God holds us in existence in love, He created us for Himself, and we daily experience the longing for truth, for love, for peace, for joy. All too easily we allow our own weakness, and the challenges we face, to mount up and obscure our vision. But, if like Zacchaeus we will forget ourselves, our pretensions, our problems, and hurry to a vantage point, to the Word of God, to the Sacraments, to prayer, hoping to gaze upon the Lord, we can be confident, that God will close the gap, that He calls us by name, that He desires to dwell not only in our homes, but in us, in our hearts, in our daily words, in our daily deeds.

In this context, the vision of our little planet from space can be helpful… we are small, we are vulnerable, we do not sustain ourselves. However, although we are small, we are not adrift in a faceless and impersonal universe, we are cradled lovingly in the hand of our Maker, and He is always attentive to us, always sustaining us. Can we become attentive to Him? Will we seek Him who has already found us? Will we open our homes to His grace? Will we repent of our sins and generously respond to God’s forgiveness? Zacchaeus gives us the model, as he swallows his pride and scurries up the tree. Jesus is coming to our homes today, to our hands, on our lips… will we receive Him with joy?

+ A. M. D. G. +