Deacons' Council Diocese of Orlando at 135 Marion Oak Lane, Ocala, FL 34473-2631 US - We can become big spirited too!

Deacon Wanca preaches to the community.

One of the older parishioners in my parish told me of a song they learned when they were young, you may have heard of it or even learned it yourself. "Zacchaeus was a wee little man; a wee little man was he. He climbed up in a sycamore tree; the Lord he wanted to see. As the Lord came passing by,he looked up in the tree. And he said, Zacchaeus, come down. I'm going to your house today. I'm going to your house today." Does anyone remember it? I'm told all kids enjoyed that song especially as they go through the motions that indicate the smallness of Zacchaeus, the climbing of the tree, the Lord looking up toward the short guy perched like a bird ona branch. Do we remember why Zacchaeus was up in the tree? Sure we do, he was small; he could not see Jesus as Jesus came walking by. But in addition to that his fellow citizens thought of Zacchaeus as a harsh tax collector and almost everyone disliked him, people would not let him have a palce beside the road. They had no respect for him because they thought he was a sinner... a big time sinner! And he was, no doubt, a fraudulent, greedy, self-absorbed mean spirited man. We may rightfully assume that he was not only small of stature but small also in spirit -- to put it in the language of today we could say that he was a little fellow with a large deficit in his heart. But Jesus saw something the crowd did not see. He saw the possibility of giving Zacchaeus a new heart, a kind of heart transplant. We could almost paint this picture: Jesus wanted to put Zacchaeus on the table and with the greatest love possible open up the hard hearted man, take out his hard -- calcified heart, and put put a completely new heart in its place. Granted I'm speaking symbolically, but that is precisely what happened. As Jesus and Zacchaeus had fellowship together, Zacchaeus litterally became a new man. Very new! It truly was a miracle. This old tightwad suddenly came faec to face with his selfishness. He saw himself as he really was; covetous, grasping, money hungry. So, in the presence of holiness, in the light of great goodness, Zacchaeus saw how unloving and unhappy he truly was. So he submitted to the Jesus transplant. The old hard-heart was gone, and in its palce there was such a joyful, healthy heart that he could hardly believe it. The old Zacchaeus would not have believed what the new Zacchaeus told Jesus he was going to do. He vowed to give half of his wealth to the poor. He vowed to pay abck four-fold anyone form whom he had extorted money. I bet jesus himself got excited when he heard this. He heard Zacchaeus speaking from his new and loving heart, and our Lord's in reposnse said, "Today salvation has come to this house." Zacchaeus had become right with God and man. The little man had become big and it happened during a lunch break. Amazing, what Jesus could even do on his lunch breaks. It is surprising how much goodness there was in the little man that everyone felt threatened by or disliked. So in light of the recent terrorist atacks on our soil that touched all peoples we as Catholic Christians have to struggle continually tolive according to teh call we received form the Lord. For Jesus, no man is "dfferent," no woman an "outcast," no child an "outsider," no teenager a "stranger," no elderly person a "castoff." For Catholic Christians, there is no "our own kind." understood in any context of seperation and aloofness, much less contempt for others. We need to remember that our religion was founded by a cruicified Jew, propagated by Greeks, kept alive in dark ages by the Irish, theologized by the Germans and French, ruled by Italians, and brought to these shores by the wildest assortment of immigrants imaginable. As Catholic Christians, we, above all, are a universal people, and the openess of our minds and hearts should always be indicative of our basic belief in teh unity of all peoples. We welcome outcasts by refusing to see them as such. It is incumbent upon all of us here to help our communities to reflect upon their attitudes toward people different form them, especially those with different religious, political, or moral persuasions. We must help them see how much tolerance and compassion they have, and help them accept these differences as God-given. We need to help them think outside the box, to think of how different we appear to others; and would those poeple be wrong in treating them as outcasts. Not an easy task. However, if we remember the greatest commandment, LOVE, then love will allow us to see beneath the surface of people -- this was the great talent of Jesus. We need to help our communities to see with the eyes of lvoe and allow their love to see goodness in everyone. That's just what Jesus did when he saw Zacchaeus in taht sycamore tree. Zacchaeus may haev been small of stature, but he became big in spirit when he met Jesus. And the Good News for all of us is that when Jesus is allowed to rule in our hearts, we can become big spirited as well. Deacon Wiliam Wanca, Sr., ministers at Our Lady of Grace Church in Palm Bay, Florida. He delievered this homily 11/4/01 at San Pedro Center at the closing mass of the Continuing Education Weekend.

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