“The Son of Man has come to seek
and to save what is lost.”
Boys and girls, I will ask you:
Why did Zacchaeus go up the Sycamore tree?
It’s not a trick question. Why?
To see Jesus. You’re right. Right. He did.
Let me also ask you, you guys are small,
if you were in a crowd of people and
you wanted to see somebody, what would you typically do?
Wouldn’t you worm your way through the crowd
and you would peek your head out. Right?
There must have been another reason,
other than just to see Jesus.
I propose that it was not just to see Jesus
but it was also to be seen by Jesus.
There is a difference.
We can see somebody else
but if they do not see us in return,
it isn’t quite the same impact.
Let’s take an example:
Let’s say Garoppolo.
We can all agree that he is a neutral public figure, okay.
He is the quarterback of the San Francisco 49’ers.
if I went and I saw Garoppolo, I’d say
"Oh look, that’s Garoppolo! Look, that’s Garoppolo.”
You would do the same right?
You’d say, "Oh look, that’s him.
That’s him. I’m sure that’s him.
Oh, he’s taller than I thought.”
Or you’d say, “He’s shorter than I thought.”;
or this; or that.
If he then turned around and said,
“Hey, hi Fr. Brendan.”
I’d be going “Whaat? How do you know me.”
He’d go, “Oh I know you. I know everything about you.”
I’d go, “Whoa, you do?”
Garoppolo knows me! Right?
There’s a difference, right?
You know them versus they know you. Right?
But for me, Garoppolo wouldn’t be that much of importance.
If on the other hand, Pope Francis was coming;
if Pope Francis came by, we would all say,
“I saw Pope Francis.
I was 150 yards away from him.
I could see him right there.
I could almost touch him.”
I would say 150 yards? No.
You cannot touch him at 150 yards.
But because he is so famous,
you would want to see him.
If, on the other hand, Pope Francis turned around and said,
“Hi Fr. Brendan, I’m coming to stay at St. Simon’s.”
I’d go “Oh my gosh. Quick. Ready the house.
He is coming. Oh my gosh.”
I would be panicking, right?
There is a difference between seeing and being seen.
That is what Jesus does to Zacchaeus.
Zacchaeus doesn’t just see Jesus,
but he is seen by Jesus.
Jesus looks at him and says,
“I’m staying at your house tonight. I’m going home with you.”
Every Sunday, Jesus looks at every single one of us and says,
“I’m going home with you.”
Jim, Kathy, John, I’m going home with you.
Tom, Adrian, Mary, I’m going home with you.
Even when I just say that,
people go whoa better get the house ready.
Jesus is coming home. Right?
There is a sense like ahhh,
I’m not sure I want that; you see that’s the danger.
The danger is that we just come to see Jesus
and we don’t really want to take him home.
That’s the biggest challenge we have.
We come; we see Jesus; check;
we’ve done our job for the Sunday; that’s it.
But that is not what the Eucharist is about.
What the Eucharist is about and
we say it every single Sunday
that we come forward not only to see Jesus
but to receive Jesus;
and then to become Jesus and
take Jesus home into our house.
We have to understand that Zacchaeus
goes through a conversion moment as well.
It is not just that he sees Jesus,
he is seen by Jesus and then he has a conversion;
he says, “I give half my wealth away to the poor.”
And if I have extorted anybody, I’m going to make amends.
That means that we are going to be generous with our lives
and then if I’ve hurt anybody, I have to make amends.
I promise to make up for it;
to do something about it and
not pretend we have not done it.
We are all called to conversion stories
every single weekend when we come to Eucharist.
But we have to be willing to take Jesus home.
What does that look like for us?
Here’s the thing, it means we have to be like Jesus to others;
we have to go home and
be kind and gentle to our spouse
who didn’t come to Mass because they didn’t want to;
or our child who says to us that we don’t really believe any more;
that we bring Jesus home to them.
Or do we bring Jesus home to our parents who are sick or ill;
or maybe we bring Jesus to the stranger we meet on the street;
maybe even the cashier or the barista at the coffee shop.
Here is the opposite we have to look at:
If we do not bring Jesus to them,
it’s scandalous what we do here
because what we do is we see Jesus
but we leave him here.
We have got to understand the big thing
that we do when we come to receive Jesus.
If we all did that every single Sunday;
if every single one of us went out of here
and brought Jesus home with us into our lives
with our family and with our friends;
and we were gentle and we were kind;
we were forgiving and we were all the things Jesus asks us to be.
It may not make a difference on one particular day
or one particular week,
but week after week if we kept on doing that,
I can promise you a year from now,
this Church would be fuller.
That is a fact.
Because people would say
“I don’t know what you all are doing over there at St. Simon’s
but something is changing you guys and I want that.”
And if that is Jesus then I want Jesus.
But what happens is when we do not change
and if we are not Jesus out there
then what happens is people go like,
“Well obviously it makes no difference in your life
so why am I going to waste my time going?”
You see, we are the evangelists.
We are the ones who have to become what we receive.
Today, as we come forward,
let’s not just settle to see Jesus today;
let’s receive him and take Jesus home.
That’s our role today.
And let’s be Jesus to others:
Kind, gentle, understanding, forgiving.
We take Jesus home.
