Up A Tree?

The tragedy of September 11th, put us all in touch with the great Mysteries we encounter in our human situation; the Mystery of Life itself; the Mystery of Love, which is the Mystery of God; the Mystery of Evil, which begs the agonizing question, “Why?”; and, of course, the Mystery of Death, which includes the awesome mysteries of afterlife and salvation.

Salvation! That is the question raised in today’s Gospel Lesson. The story begins with a man named Zacchaeus who is, literally, “up a tree.”

Zacchaeus was a rich Tax Collector, a swindler and extorter of sorts. Therefore his wealth was tainted: ill-gotten. At the time of today’s Lesson, Jesus was passing through Jerico, the town in which Zacchaeus lived. Zacchaeus had heard about Jesus and was anxious to see what kind of man Jesus was, but he couldn’t get through the crowd that was following Jesus and being a small man, he was too short to see over the crowd. So he climbed…