God’s Grace in Our Lives

Homily for October 30, 2016 (31st Sunday in Ordinary Time)

Wisdom 11:22-12:2; Psalm 145; 2 Thessalonians 11:11-2:2; Luke 19:1-10

Our culture and economy encourage upward mobility, particularly in the material sense.  Throughout our lives we’re encouraged to show others we’ve “made it” by obtaining progressively more prestigious and higher-paying jobs, buying more expensive clothes and cars, and buying bigger houses.  In 1962, the year I was born, the average American home was just over 1300 sq. ft.  By 2014 that average had more than doubled to nearly 2700 sq. ft., even as our families were getting smaller.  Yet many people today are anxious about the future, and they fear that their children and grandchildren will face even greater uncertainty and more difficult lives.

Regardless of how the tides of history have made upward social and material mobility easier or more difficult, we have long had the opportunity for a different kind of prosperity:  to grow morally and spiritually.  Throughout the gospels, Jesus makes this kind of climbing a mark of discipleship.  As his encounter with Zaccheus demonstrates, however, upward mobility in the gospel sense paradoxically begins not by climbing up but rather by humbly stepping down.

Psalm 145 tells us that “The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness…good to all and compassionate to all his works.”  The author of Wisdom calls us to remember that even God’s discipline is an expression of God’s goodness, patience and desire to save us and be in relationship with us:  “you rebuke offenders little by little,  warn them and remind them of the sins they are committing, that they may abandon their wickedness and believe in you, O Lord.”  At the end of our gospel passage, Jesus places this kind of mercy at the center of his mission:  “For the Son of man has come to seek and save what was lost.”

Jesus revealed this mission of mercy to Zaccheus in an unusual way:  he invited himself to dinner!  Zaccheus, “a tax collector and a wealthy man” had to scramble down from his perch in that sycamore tree to receive the Lord—not just in his house but in his heart!  For his part, Jesus was willing to withstand the grumblings of critics who questioned why he would want to eat in fellowship with someone with such a checkered reputation.  Zaccheus’ resolutions to give half of his possessions to the poor and to provide four-fold restitution to anyone whom he had extorted were dramatic responses to those critics and to his very personal experience of God’s grace. 

As we near the end of this Year of Mercy, it’s good to ask how well we’ve made use of God’s grace in our lives. Has it made a difference in how we live?  Has it strengthened our relationships with the Lord and others?  We’re about to celebrate the Dias de los Muertos, the Days of the Dead*, a special time to reflect and give thanks for the lives of “those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith.”  In remembering them, let us also join St. Paul and pray that God may make us worthy of his calling and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every effort of faith,” that the name of Jesus may be glorified in us and we in him. +