Sunday word, 03 Nov 19

31^st Sunday of the Year C (03 Nov 2019)

Wis 11. 22-12. 2; Ps 145; 2Th  1. 11-2. 2; Lk 19. 1-10

Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J., Spiritual Exercises

Contradiction

Your retreats close today. Some have retreated from October 2^nd to today. Others end their retreats of 8 days or fewer. Our triune God has met all of us as we needed: that may be clear to you. God’s graciousness may dawn more clearly after you are home: at least that has happened for me now and again. Before you go I want you to consider with me the world you have experienced and can take with you.

Retreat affords us the opportunity to disengage from our usual milieux and their routines and engage our triune God more directly. Our retreats free us to access God more readily—even on our return home. Early rabbis commented on Psalm 145; their encouraging comment  can assist our access: “‘Everyone who repeats the [praise] of David three times a day may be sure [one] is a child of the world to come.’”¹

If we consider the entire psalm’s actions by humans and by the Eternal One we can begin to appreciate that ancient assurance:

It refers to exalting, worshipping, praising, lauding, murmuring, talking, proclaiming, pouring forth, resounding, confessing, and speaking….[Actions we can do anywhere, anytime.] It refers to [the Eternal’s] greatness, mighty acts, majesty, glory, splendor, wondrous acts, might, awesome acts, reign and rule. …goodness, faithfulness, grace, compassion, long-temperedness, commit-ment and trustworthiness. It describes [the Eternal’s] upholding, lifting up, giving, opening the hand, filling, being near, listening, delivering, watching.²

Little wonder James “Mays suggests Psalm 145 is the overture to the final movement of the psalter, a sort of prelude to the final “‘Ode to Joy.’”³

The Book of Wisdom echoed the psalm: God, you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made. We can do likewise. Consider Zacchaeus. Jesus not only confirmed Zacchaeus as a descendant of Abraham—an expression one was not only of God but was compassionate like God. His compassion stirred Zacchaeus to break with isolating himself: he was seeking to see who Jesus was. Zacchaeus did not want an eyeful of Jesus; he wanted truly to know Jesus, to converse with him. Jesus met his desire and beckoned him. Personally interacting with Jesus swelled Zacchaeus’ compassion to give generously to others.

Compassion contradicts isolation. Compassion stirred Jesus’ guts.⁴ Compassion is the guts of Christian community. Christian compassion flows from the eucharist. In it Francis recently reminded, “we enter into communion with Jesus, and from this communion with Jesus we reach a communion with our brothers and sisters.”⁵ Communion embraces compassion.

One way to deepen this communion, to refresh it, to remain in its orbit is savouring. Savouring “repeats the [praise] of David”; it also lets us re-experience its fruit given us. Savour how each of us is like Zacchaeus. His break with isolation began before he climbed a sycamore; yours began before you came on retreat. Zacchaeus climbed down the sycamore with his life forever changed. Your return home can mean the same: keep desiring to know Jesus; chat with him daily; and you will proclaim compassion with your newfound self.

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1. Quoted by Ben Witherington III, Psalms Old and New, Accordance electronic ed. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2017), 303.
2. Witherington III, 303-304.
3. Witherington III, 303.
4. The Greek verb, to have compassion, is to experience one’s guts (heart, lungs, liver and the like) stirred; one’s inmost self is moved.
5. His 2019-21 August General Audience focused on Christian community.

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Picture of Burning Bush, IJC, Guelph, ON, by Paul Panaretos; Wiki-image Zacchaeus in a sycamore PD-US