31st Sunday in Ordinary Time [C]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
November 3, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Luke 19:1-10<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the time of Jesus, there are at least two kinds of taxes. The first\ntax goes to the Temple of Jerusalem. This is a \u201csacred tax\u201d. Those who collect\nthem are performing a sacred duty, and those who pay are fulfilling their due\nto God. Yet, the second tax is exacted by the Roman government. In order to\neffectively get the taxes, the Romans employs the local collaborators. The Jews\nare heavily burdened by this tax because they are unjustly hefty, and often\ncollected by coercion. The Jews understandably loathe those Jewish tax\ncollectors who willingly betray their own people and are involved in greedy\nmalpractices. These are the worst sinners, unclean, corrupt and traitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Certainly, Joseph, Mary and Jesus as a poor family, are having a\ndifficult time to pay taxes themselves, and perhaps, fall victims to greedy tax\ncollectors. However, despite this bitter reality, Jesus has a different\nattitude towards tax collectors. He is known to be the friends of tax\ncollectors and sinners [Mat 11:19]. He shares his table with tax collectors\n[Luk 5:30]. He presents the tax collector as the protagonist in his parable,\nwhile the Pharisee as the bad guy [Luk 18:9ff]. One of His disciples, Matthew,\nis used to be a tax collector before he leaves everything and follows Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today, we listen to the story of Zacchaeus, not ordinary tax collector,\nbut the chief. Despite his high position and richness, he is a small stature.\nThus, people look down on him both in a physical and religious sense. Yet,\nJesus does something remarkable: He takes the initiative to look upon Zacchaeus\nwho climbs the sycamore tree, calls him by name, and gets Himself invited to\nZacchaeus\u2019 house. This is unthinkable: the God-man calls and enters the house\nof the number-one public enemy in town. We notice that Jesus does not perform\nany earth-shattering miracles, but Jesus\u2019 simple and loving gesture touches\ndeeply Zacchaeus\u2019 heart. Right there and then, he repents and ready to repair\nthe damages he causes. Jesus declares, \u201cToday salvation has come to this house\n(Lk. 19:2).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What Jesus does deeply disturb the minds of orthodox Jews who prefer to\ndistance themselves from the sinners, to avoid the contamination. Thus, they\njeer at Jesus. Yet, Jesus takes the opposite direction: to enter the house and\nshare a table even with the worst kind of sinners, chief tax collector, for one\nreason: \u201cFor the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.”\n(Lk. 19:10).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Gospel offers us two attitudes towards our brothers and sisters who\nare struggling in their lives. We can choose whether like the crowd, to\ndistance ourselves, and let them rot in hell, and even discourage any effort to\nembrace them, or like Jesus to takes the initiative to help them, even with\nsimple gestures. It is true that when we open ourselves, there is no guarantee\nthat our effort will be successful, and sometimes, we will get betrayed and\nhurt. Mother Teresa of Calcutta took care hundreds of homeless, but some of\nthem turned against her and threw nasty gossips, and yet Mother Teresa\ncontinued to serve till the end of her life. Jesus has made His choice, so also\nmany of His followers, now the choice is ours to make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the time of Jesus, there are at least two kinds of taxes. The first tax goes to the Temple of Jerusalem. This is a \u201csacred tax\u201d. Those who collect them are performing a sacred duty, and those who pay are fulfilling their due to God. Yet, the second tax is exacted by the Roman government. In order to effectively get the taxes, the Romans employs the local collaborators. The Jews are heavily burdened by this tax because they are unjustly hefty, and often collected by coercion. The Jews understandably loathe those Jewish tax collectors who willingly betray their own people and are involved in greedy malpractices. These are the worst sinners, unclean, corrupt and traitors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[57,58],"class_list":["post-8944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-renungan","tag-english","tag-sunday-reflection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8944"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8945,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8944\/revisions\/8945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}