The story of Zaccheus

Tuesday,
November 19, 2019
33rd Week in Ordinary Time
First Reading:
2 Mac 6:18-31
Gospel Reading: Lk 19:1-10
When Jesus entered Jericho and was going through the city, a man named Zaccheus was there. He was a tax collector and a wealthy man. He wanted to see what Jesus was like, but he was a short man and could not see because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed up a sycamore tree. From there e would be able to see Jesus who had to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, come down quickly for I must stay at your house today.” So Zaccheus hurried down and received him joyfully.
“All the people who saw it began to grumble and said, ‘He has gone to the house of a sinner as a guest.” But Zaccheus spoke to Jesus, “The half of my goods, Lord, I give to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone, I will pay him back four times as much.” Looking at him Jesus said, “Salvation has come to this house today, for he is also a true son of Abraham. The Son of Man has cone to seek and to save the lost.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life  Experience) 
Years ago, a truck hit a motorcycle near the coastal road of Cebu City. After the motorcycle driver was thrown out of his iron horse he summoned whatever strength he still had to check on his passengers who could have been his wife and his child. The truck driver missed this moving scenario because he sped away. Luckily there were good Samaritans, Doris and Gary, on board a blue multicab. They followed the truck until the irresponsible driver was forced to surrender at a Police sub-station. Doris and Gary did a heroic thing. Their multicab couldn’t run as fast as the truck but their determination to pursue justice for the victims supplied the power that their multicab did not have.
The irresponsibility of the driver stands out in stark contrast with the sense of responsibility of the man presented in today’s Gospel reading. Zaccheus, a corrupt tax collector, owned up to his misdeeds and apologized in public. He said, “If I have cheated anyone, I will pay him back four times.” Jesus commended him by saying: “This is what it means to be a son of Abraham.” Those who heard Jesus were shocked. Zaccheus was a public sinner and he was the last they thought Jesus would honor with the title ‘son of Abraham”.
We are angry with the irresponsible driver in the hit-and-run incident we mentioned earlier. But we must also take note of how honest drivers who stop and rescue their victims end up being beaten by angry bystanders. God is not like that. He is very considerate to sinners who take responsibility for whatever damage their acts of injustices have incurred. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., J.D., D.M.