Defining his work, Alfred Hitchcock once said that “some films are slices of life. Mine are slices of cake.” He went on: “what is drama, after all, but life with the dull bits cut out.” (http://www.ajkeen.com/2006/01/27/life_with_the_d/)The TV series ‘Love/Hate’ is achieving incredible viewing figures at the moment. Almost a million viewers tuned in to the first episode of the latest series. The fifth episode of the series will be on tonight.
Good story-telling that people can relate to, makes ‘Love/Hate’ a very successful production. Whatever we may think of the violence, the series appears to be real to life. We hear every day on the news about gang violence on the streets of our cities. ‘Love/Hate’ gives us the safe, dramatized, insider view of the violence on the streets of Dublin. We see people getting killed or attacked, and become immersed in the story of why that happens. The drama of the story is the drama of real-life.
The gospel this morning is something like that. We can connect with Zacchaeus because he is this flawed, human character. If the gospel is a drama, a representation of real-life, then today we are introduced to Zacchaeus. Key pieces of information are offered: name, profession, and wealth. He is short and can run. He can climb trees. Already he is a complex character. He is keen to impress. He is impulsive.
He seems to be a career-driven, wealthy, young man, who imagined himself going places. Maybe tax collecting hasn’t turned out the way he imagined that it would.
Zacchaeus is a wonderful character in the story of the gospel. We are all characters in the story of the Christian journey. Our lives are complex, comfortable, sinful, rich. But, perhaps, like Zacchaeus we are not really alive. Not really whole. Maybe the perfect life that we dreamed up for ourselves hasn’t quite worked out. Like Zacchaeus, we ache for the fullness and freedom of life that is salvation in Christ Jesus. Our hearts ache for the fulsome salvation that is offered by the Lord. Zacchaeus is ‘anxious’ to meet Jesus. He has heard of this man. And, in his anxiety, his heart overtakes him. He finds himself running ahead, climbing up the nearest sycamore. If Jesus was coming here today, wouldn’t you climb a tree to see him? When will Jesus arrive?
Real encounter with Jesus is a life-changing moment. Someone once described prayer as subversive. If we really pray, then we will encounter the Lord Jesus. And if we really encounter the Lord Jesus, then we will be changed by that. And if we are changed by that, our lives will speak loudly to the world. Evangelisation is nothing less than sharing with everyone the joy of having encountered the Lord.
So, you may ask, how are we to encounter the Lord Jesus? If we were Christians of another denomination, we might say that the real encounter with the Lord is to be found by reading the Word of God. We would carry our tattered, worn out Bible with us everywhere. We would seek to immerse ourselves in the Word of God, and offer the Word to other people, so that they too might encounter the Lord.
As a Catholic, we may feel that the answer to encountering Jesus is to be found in Eucharistic adoration. If we have made a pilgrimage to Fatima or Medjugorje, perhaps we will feel that we need to listen to the messages of Our Lady, in order to encounter the Lord. Or, maybe we are devoted to the prayer of the Rosary; or perhaps a devotion to St Anthony or St Jude. Maybe St Pio (Padre Pio). Or maybe we take time to pray through meditation.
For us in the Catholic tradition, we believe that it is in the Church that we encounter the resurrected Lord. “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” (Matthew 18:20) We are baptized into the Church. We hear God’s Word in the Church. We celebrate Eucharist together as Church. Bishops and priests shepherd the Church. The Lord walked among us to gather us as one, in the Church. The word ‘Church’ means ‘gathering unto the Lord’ (ekklesia tou theou in the greek).
When we gather together, and encounter the Lord, we are moved to do what Zacchaeus promises to do in the gospel. We give away our material wealth to those who need it, because we realize that money in the bank is nothing compared to our wealth in Christ Jesus. It is no use being rich, if I cannot share my riches with others.
We are also moved confess and to make recompense for our wrongs. For Zacchaeus, his sins of cheating others came, perhaps, from a sense that he had to put himself first. Before his encounter with the Lord, perhaps he felt that he deserved the good life, and anyhow, who cares if that meant cheating a few people along the way. We know this element of the human story well. The encounter with the Lord not only changes Zacchaeus’ heart, he resolves to make recompense four times over! Zacchaeus is a character who discovers real freedom, real wealth, in the encounter with Jesus. He can afford to give up everything in the face of this moment. Like many of us, Zacchaeus impulsively and excitedly makes rash promises to Jesus. Does he keep them? Who knows.
“what is drama, after all, but life with the dull bits cut out.” Maybe we need to be a bit silly, a bit impulsive. Move beyond the comfort zone. Fail. Succeed. Fail. Try again.
“And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek out and save what was lost.’”
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