Daily Gospel Reflection
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November 19, 2019
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich.
He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way.
When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him.
All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.”
Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”
Luke loves to confound our expectations. Just when you think you have Jesus pegged, Luke includes a story that overturns everything. In the previous chapter, a rich young ruler kept all the commandments but went away sad because he would not give everything to the poor for the sake of the kingdom. The disciples ask in exasperated response, “Who then can be saved?” They certainly would not have expected the answer, “the rich young tax-collector Zacchaeus.” But such surprising inclusions are a regular feature of the kingdom.
The crowd, too, thinks it has the kingdom figured out, and for them Zacchaeus is most definitely on the outside. Tax collectors were universally despised and considered to be corrupt. And so they label Zacchaeus a “sinner,” unworthy of getting close to Jesus. But it turns out that Zacchaeus is more than meets the eye, for he is about the same things that are important to Jesus: he welcomes Jesus with hospitality, and displays a concern for justice and generosity to the poor. This chief of tax-collectors turns out to be included in the kingdom.
But perhaps the biggest surprise is revealed only at the end. For it seemed throughout that it was Zacchaeus who was seeking Jesus. He tries to fight through the crowd; he tries to see who Jesus is; he takes the undignified step of climbing a tree to catch a glimpse. But only in the last line of the story do we discover that, for all of Zacchaeus’ efforts, it was Jesus who was seeking Zacchaeus all along.
Like the disciples and the crowd, it can be easy to focus on other people and whether they measure up, but Jesus draws our attention back to himself as the one who continues to seek and save in surprising ways.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, come, stay at our house! Interrupt our lives. Turn everything upside down! Rouse us out of our humdrum torpor, our apathy, our complacency. Surprise us with your nearness so much so that we, like Zacchaeus, will climb the tallest tree just to get the slightest glimpse of your face. Prepare our hearts to receive you with love. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Raphael Kalinowski had a brilliant mind and a faithful heart that he used to spread the faith in Poland at the end of the 1800s. He survived ten years in a labor camp in Siberia before becoming a Carmelite priest.
He was born in 1835 to a noble family in Vilnius—his father taught mathematics and served as superintendent of the local boarding school for nobles. Raphael attended this school and graduated with honors in 1850.
Opportunities for further education were limited, so Raphael joined the Russian army that he might study at an engineering academy. He later was assigned as professor of mathematics at the academy, and helped to design railroads.
He was promoted to captain, but his heart was with the oppressed Poles of his homeland. He resigned from the army and joined resistance efforts, helping to lead a major uprising. He was captured and sentenced to die by firing squad. When his family intervened, Russian authorities feared that if they killed him, he would inspire more trouble as a political martyr. They sentenced him to ten years in a Siberian labor camp instead.
Over the course of nine months, he was forcibly marched to a labor camp in Siberia—many did not survive the journey, but Raphael had a hidden strength, and became a leader to other prisoners. He labored in salt mines there for ten years.
After his release, he returned to Poland, and became a tutor to the young prince, August Czartoryski. The prince suffered from tuberculosis, and Raphael accompanied him as he sought medical treatment and favorable climates; he had a profound influence on the young man’s life. The prince eventually became a priest and was beatified by Pope St. John Paul II in 2004.
Throughout his travels, Raphael became aware of the Russian persecution of the Church and of the people of his homeland. He entered a community of Carmelites in 1877 and was ordained a priest five years later. His leadership skills were recognized, and he was named superior of the community. He went on to found a number of new monasteries throughout Poland.
Raphael died of tuberculosis at the age of 72 in Wadowice, Poland—the same town in which Pope St. John Paul II was born in 14 years later. His tomb became a place of pilgrimage—so many people would take handfuls of dirt from his grave that the nuns who oversaw the cemetery had to continually replace the earth and plants there.
Pope St. John Paul II counted Raphael as one of his boyhood heroes, and canonized him a saint in 1991—the first member of this Carmelite community to be named a saint since its founder, St. John of the Cross.
St. Raphael Kalinowski, you were the hero of Pope St. John Paul II who survived a Siberian labor camp to spread the faith in Poland—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Raphael Kalinowski is used with permission from Catholic Online. Last accessed October 18, 2024.