Let us enter into favor with the rich: for we do
not want to offend the rich, wanting, if it is possible, to cure everyone.
Otherwise, clasped by the parable of the camel, left out faster than it is convenient
in the person of Zacchaeus, they would have a right subject to be moved and
offended. Let them learn that there is no fault of being rich, but of not
knowing how to make use of wealth: for wealth, which is a hindrance to the
wicked, is among the good resources for virtue. Yes, the rich Zacchaeus was
chosen by Christ. But by giving the poor half of his property, even paying back
four times what he had fraudulently stolen - because one of them is not enough,
and the largesse has no value if the injustice subsists, expected that one does
not ask for spoils, but gifts - he has received a reward more abundant than his
largesse. And it is well that it is pointed out as the head of the publicans:
who in fact could despair of himself, when the same one arrived, who drew his
income from the fraud?
"And he was rich," he says: learn by
this that the rich are not all greedy. How is it that Scripture did not mention
the size of any other than this: "Because it was small? See if by chance
he was small by malice, or small as to faith; for he had not yet promised
anything when he ascended; he had not yet seen Christ; so, it is true that he
was still small. John is great because he saw Christ, and the Spirit resting
like a dove on Christ, as he himself says: "I saw the Spirit descending
like a dove and rest on Him "(Jn, l, 32). As for the crowd, is it not the
fray of an ignorant multitude, who could not see the heights of wisdom? So
Zacchaeus, while he is in the crowd, does not see Christ; he rose above the
crowd, and he saw: in other words, by going beyond popular ignorance, he
managed to contemplate the One whom he desired. It was added, "Because the
Lord was to come to this place," where was either the sycamore or the
future believer: He thus observed the mystery and sowed grace; for He had come
to pass from the Jews to the Gentiles. Thus, He saw Zacchaeus above, for
henceforth the elevation of his faith made him emerge among the fruits of new
works as on the summit of a fruitful tree. And since we have moved from the figure
to the moral sense, it is nice to relax our soul on Sunday among the wills of
so many believers, to share in the celebration. Zacchaeus in the sycamore is
the new fruit of the new season; in him also is realized the text: "the
fig tree gave its first fruits" (Cant., II, 13); because Christ came so
that the trees give birth not to fruits, but to men. We read elsewhere:
"When you were under the fig tree, I saw you" (Jn, I, 48). Nathanael
is therefore under the tree, that is to say on the root - for it is right, and
"the root is holy" (Rom., XI, 16) - but Nathanael is under the tree,
because only under the law; Zacchaeus is on the tree, because above the law.
One defends the Lord in secret, the other preaches publicly. One still sought
Christ in the Law; the other, already higher than the Law, abandoned his
property and followed the Lord.
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