Zacchaeus Chance and Necessity

Abstract

A Sermon, written for the Internet series of weekly sermons by Dominicans, for the 31st Sunday of the Year: C. The Scriptural texts were Wisdom 11:22-2:2; Thessalonians 1:11-2:2 and Luke 19:1-10. Does God play dice with the universe?Is everything the product of chance?Is necessity a one-way road along which we must travel?Why are some people given faith and others not?These are the kinds of questions that should jostle for attention in our minds as we consider today’s gospel. And yet at first sight the story of Zacchaeus up a tree could well seem just a charming and picturesque Oriental tale, told to make the simple point that Jesus leaves nobody out.Dwell a little longer on those questions that float in and out of our consciousness as we begin to reflect on the gospel. To read the Scriptures in the Christian assembly as part of the liturgy is not the same kind of activity as reading them alone at home. To start with, the Sunday readings are selected and combined for us. We come to the gospel story about Zacchaeus only after we have taken in the reading from the book of Wisdom. That first reading already releases large questions and cosmic issues into our consciousness: In your sight, Lord, the whole world is like a grain of dust that tips the scales . . . Yet you love all that exists . . . And how, had you not willed it, could a thing persist?So, back to the gospel. Consider what might have been that day in Jericho.