Many times we seek to bring people back to the Church. They have turned away and some have no plans to return. We certainly have a mission to bring people back to the Church, but be careful. At what cost are we doing this?

I ask you this question in light of today’s Gospel. Look carefully at it. First, Jesus had no intention of visiting Zaccheus. The Gospel clearly says they were just passing through Jericho. But Zaccheus seeks desperately to see Jesus and now works hard to do so. He even climbs a tree. Jesus calls out to Zaccheus that he will visit his house. Now think clearly what this means. People dismiss this as the house of a sinner. They would never step foot into the house and if they were walking by, they would go to the other side of the street. They would maybe even point out to people that house where Zaccheus lived. Also what about people who may be there also for dinner. Will they be sinners as well?

Now what kind of a sinner was Zaccheus, he was first a tax collector. That means he was a traitor, he collected taxes from the Jews to give the Roman occupying force. He was collaborating with not only the enemy of the Jews, but also some would say the enemy of God himself. The Romans were pagans promoting pagan worship and Zaccheus was supporting them. Then look at the gospel. He openly admits he may have extorted people, over charged them. He himself may have committed the sin of greed. This is a sin that Paul describes as idolatry and the source of all the evils in the world. Here he was openly admitting that he may have committed sins and crimes rooted in greed.

However, there is a change of heart and he seeks to right his wrong out of his own wealth. He is willing to give away half his wealth in recompense to make up for his sins. Something has happened in Zaccheus that has changed him completely. Now look carefully, out  of all the people Jesus could have visited, he visited Zaccheus’ house, the house of a sinner.

I thought of that this week. We can talk about bringing people into our church and we should. However, should we not first be focused on bringing those who are more open to recognizing their need for salvation than those who don’t. Who are those people, they are the sinners. Granted many sinners are deep in  their sins and are not going to change. You are not going to change the lives of some of the notorious mobsters, generally, some do change in prison. However, there are those on the street just looking for a change of their life for they realize that the life they lead is not leading them anywhere. They may not even be thinking of Hell. But they may be thinking that their life is not where they wanted to be.

Is it not these people we need to change rather than Aunt Millie who decided that she does not like the Church teaching on whatever and has not walked into a Catholic Church since Fr. Jones told her not to show up late for mass anymore. Obviously, Aunt Millie can come back too, but are we not called to first reach out to those who really seek something that their present life is not giving them the sinner who seeks conversion.  The broken people who want to be whole. Is not this what evangelization is also about.

In my preparation for the All Saint’s Day homily I noticed in the work of the Saints there was a tremendous effort to change people’s hearts in the work of love. They understood the power of conversion and the work to change people’s hearts mostly through prayer and some some action. The saints worked to convert the worst of all sinners as well. We need to realize that we need to evangelize all people but especially those the world considers the worst of all sinners. This changes people’s hearts.

This is what Jesus is teaching here. It is to Zacheus, the one who many walked by sneering and hating because he was a traitorous tax collector that Jesus visits and not to the local pharisee and not to the person who stopped going to the synagogue because she did not like the Rabbi. It was to the sinner’s house that he went.

I am reminded of a woman I met in the Navy who lived next to a Biker clubhouse, something like the Hell’s Angels. She was an evangelical woman who said that she was going to pray them into Heaven. Hell’s angels. She would celebrate their birthdays, bake them birthday cakes and pray for  them every day. She understood the mandate we see in this Gospel. We need to open our doors to the worst of all sinners if those sinners are open to conversion. But that means we need to take a chance.

We are in the salvation business and the people we need to invite includes those in most need of salvation.

God Bless You,

Fr. Robert J Carr

Fr. Carr is an alliance member of the New Song Community (Canção Nova). He is the pastor ofHoly Trinity Parish, Quincy, MA and is the editor of this blog. He also has a regular radio program on WebRadio Canção Nova. Which he podcasts on the Canção Nova podcast website and here on Catholicismanew.
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