HerbEly

Did Zack Have a Sudden Conversion?

In the scriptures for the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (October 30, 2016) we will hear about a man who has changed. Zaccheus (Zack), unlike the tax collector from last Sunday's Gospel, has done very well for himself. Yet he is willing to go great lengths, running ahead and then climbing a Sycamore tree,  just to see Jesus. When he does, he changes dramatically. He doesn't just offer amends:  he will give half his possessions to the poor. Further, he will repay four times any amount he "might have" extorted.

The point of Sunday's readings is that God is merciful, even to tax collecting extortionists. Psalm 145 tells us that:

"The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness.

The LORD is good to all and compassionate toward all his works."

 

Accepting this, we can still wonder how Zack the extortionist reached a state of mind enabling him to make an instant conversion. I suspect that his conversion started well before the story we hear in the gospel. It was also more gradual, occurring in stages.  This is what we read in our first reading from the book of Wisdom:

"O LORD and lover of souls,

for your imperishable spirit is in all things!

Therefore 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!"

Zack may have been surprised by his conversion. I imagine that his taxpaying victims were even more surprised.

We need to be patient with our selves and with others. God is working silently within. If we turn ourselves over to the care of God, change will come when we are ready. Not too soon - or too late.

An Overconfident Pharisee

    The scripture readings for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (October 23, 2016) warn good people of a spiritual danger.

    Somewhere (I don't remember where) in John Henry Newman's writings there is a magnificent paragraph about how self confidence and humility work together. 

    Confidence, aka self esteem, helps us to undertake tasks when we are hesitant or afraid the we might fail. Overconfidence, on the other hand, is a danger as many athletes have learned. Overconfidence leads us to be lax in preparation and ignore help from others. The result is likely to be failure. Humility protects us by reminding us that failure is possible.

    This Sunday's Gospel (Lk 18:9-14) makes this point about a Pharisee:

 "To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two people went up to the temple area to pray;
one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. 
The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself,
‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity --
greedy, dishonest, adulterous -- or even like this tax collector. 
I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.

    If the Pharisee had simply thanked God that he was able to fast twice a week and tithe, he would have been alright. Overconfident, he compared himself to the tax collector. He, in contrast, knew he had harmed others by collecting unjust taxes. He simply asked "God, have mercy on me, a sinner." He went home justified and, presumably, with some serenity.

  Last Sunday we heard about the importance of gratitude for having been healed. This Sunday we should be reminded to continue in our gratitude. We can easily begin to think that our gifts belong to us alone and give credit to ourselves. We forget, or don’t know, that our virtue is a product of circumstance and grace. We would do well to remember this line from Alexander Solzhenitsyn: 

“…But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”

    If we can find that line - and remember it - we will have the humility required to balance our confidence.

 

The Widow Knew that the Judge COULD Restore Her

    The scripture readings for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Oct. 16th, 2016) emphasize persistence in prayer. In Ex 17:8-13 Moses needed help in praying during Israel’s day long battle with the Amelek. In the gospel (Lk18:1-8), Jesus commends the widow who nagged a dishonest judge until she got a decision in her case saying:

“Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily.”

    We can ask about the motives of the widow. She was asking for a decision against an adversary. Was she desperate because she had left destitute? Persisting in hope because she knew the judge could restore her to a better state? Maybe she was just angry against her adversary and stubbornly kept after the judge.

    In the end, her motives did not matter. She acted on the hope that the judge could settle her case. It did not matter to here whether or not the judge cared about her. She just wanted action.

 

Many - maybe all - of us reach a point in our prayer lives when we wonder if we will ever get results. Does God even know we are here? If so, does God care?

 

Jesus wonders: “But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

 

We can learn from the widow. While we do have a God who cares for us, we don’t even have to believe that much. All we have to do, is come to believe that God can restore us. that is enough.