Most of us tend to think that Halloween is sort of a secular, commercial holiday but really it has its roots in our own Christian culture. Halloween is the eve, Hallow’s Eve, the eve of the holy days, which we celebrate tomorrow, the Feast of All Saints, and Tuesday, the Feast of All Souls. It’s a popular holiday, originating from our own Christian culture, that pokes fun, pokes fun at the darkness and the power of evil and the demons. But we Christians believe that Christ has already conquered death, has conquered evil and sin, and continues to do so, bringing healing and hope and forgiveness to those, even those among us who are among the darkest moments and the hold of sin. It is a traditional holiday in which the traditional costumes were people dressed up as signs or symbols of evil. So it would be the witch, the bad witches, the goblins, the vampires, and symbols of death. So you would have the skeletons and the mummies. But they would remove their costumes. They would remove their costumes purposely to show that evil, the power of evil and death and sin is an illusory one. They do not have the final word. It’s a fun holiday. It’s a holiday of hope. It’s a holiday to remember that we are a hope-filled people, a hope-filled people that believe and even know that even the eighty-six year old Curse of the Bambino can be reversed!

So it is really quite fitting that we hear these wonderful words of scripture this week, and particularly that dramatic story of Zacchaeus, in his encounter with Jesus. It is fitting to hear of that face-to-face encounter, of Zacchaeus climbing the tree, of Jesus’ encounter with a notorious sinner. Remember that Zacchaeus is a Jew himself and he has decided to cooperate with the occupying Roman army and to implement their tax system. He will collect the taxes from the merchants and the citizens, and he has used it to manipulate that system to amass a huge amount of personal wealth at the expense of his own people.

As I was reflecting on this story of Zacchaeus, I couldn’t help but be captured by the image of Zacchaeus climbing that sycamore tree. And so I sat with it for awhile, and I will try to tease some of the things out that came to mind as I reflected on that image that were lessons for me, and perhaps for you too. Climbing the tree, Zacchaeus climbing the tree..... As adults, as grown-ups, men and women, for us climbing a tree might seem sort of child-like or, for many of us, childish. If you were to watch me climbing a tree, it would be probably something that would be neither childish or child-like, but would surely be a blow to my personal dignity. For Zacchaeus, climbing the tree was a step to losing his so-called dignity. Zacchaeus believes that he is a man of stature, that his wealth gives him status among the people. But we, who know the whole story, know that it is a facade. He is living a lie. He is duping himself. And so, Luke, from the very beginning of the story, Luke, the gospel writer, reminds us something very important about Zacchaeus. Do you remember the phrase, “He is short in stature?” Not just that he may be physically short, but his reputation among his fellow people is one that is extremely limited. The people know that he does not sit well, not only in their eyes, but in the eyes of God. For Zacchaeus, climbing that tree, will be the loss of that supposed reputation that he thinks he has. But, surprisingly, Luke also depicts Jesus as losing His dignity. What happens here? Jesus comes along, sees Zacchaeus in the sycamore tree, and he does the major faux pas of any social ettiquette. He invites Himself to dinner and to lodge in his house. We all know how that feels when someone invites himself over for dinner and a stay overnight. But, on top of that, He does it in front of a huge crowd that knows who Zacchaeus really is, that Jesus invited Himself to dine with someone who oppresses his own people, to dine with someone and feast on the very spoils of this man’s injustice.

Now we, who know this story, who know the story of Jesus, know that, unlike Zacchaeus, Jesus is compromising His social reputation willingly. And we see this as something of merit, of good, for we are a people who glorify in a God Who is so transcendent, yet so compassionate, Who would come from the heavens to earth to be amidst a plentitude of sin and darkness in our world. Jesus willingly sacrifices His reputation, the reputation of society, and reminds us that we, like Luke, will at times be willing to sacrifice our own self-image, our own social standing, our supposed dignity to be instruments of healing and forgiveness and justice in our world.

As I was reflecting about this, I was thinking of an incident from my own family some twenty-five years ago. It is about a phone conversation that my mother has with her brother-in-law, my uncle. The context is that my mother has had a serious genital surgery a year before and my father died several years before and her sister has just had surgery for a similar condition. Got the context? OK. Her sister, Jay, comes home from the hospital. She lives across the state, Pennsylvania, that is. So, she calls up to see how Jay is doing now that she is out of the hospital and home. She talks with her for a couple of minutes and then asks to talk with her brother-in-law, Jay’s husband, my uncle. He comes to the phone and they chat a little bit and then my mother says to him, “Lib,” (That was his nickname.) “how are you doing with caring for Jay?” And he said to her, “It’s really a struggle. I’m really having a difficult time.” (There is this kind of deep struggle, deep breath.) He said, “But I am really struggling with what the doctor wants me to do.” My mother said, “What are you talking about?” He replied, “The doctor said that I need to apply this medical cream several times a day where the surgery was.” She said, “That must be difficult.” And he said, “Well, I am actually sort of embarrassed to do it.” And my mother took a deep breath and said, “Embarrassed? You, her husband, are embarrassed?” She said to him, “You want to hear embarrassment? Remember a year ago when I had to have the same thing done and my husband was dead? It was my three sons in their early twenties who had to do it. That’s embarrassment! But it had to be done and you are her husband and the father of her children. This is the mother of your children.”

So, I found myself thinking, recalling that incident. What work, what service, do I avoid because it might be demeaning, embarrassing? What mask do you or I wear that prevents us from being who we really are, but we do it to please the crowd? What lies do we tell ourselves to justify our own sinfulness?

The second reflection I had on the climbing the tree: Perhaps Zacchaeus’ motivation for climbing that tree was his attempt to avoid any confrontation with the people he has cheated. Perhaps his motivation for climbing the tree was not that he just couldn’t get a place to stand in front of the crowd at the edge of the road, but he also wanted to avoid Jesus face to face. Perhaps he fears condemnation. Perhaps somehow Zacchaeus knows deep inside himself that this accumulated wealth of his isn’t quite giving him the sense of security, the sense of happiness and joy that he thought it would. But he was afraid to see Jesus face to face, what He would ask of him.

That has been true in my own experience, avoiding quiet time in prayer to speak with and listen with Jesus when I was struggling with something, for fear of condemnation, for fear of shame. I remember with my very first spiritual director, one time talking about how I was struggling with something, and she just naturally said, “Well, have you brought it to prayer?” And I sheepishly said, “No.” She asked, “Why?” And I told her, as I took a gulp, saying that I was really afraid that I was going to feel a great sense of condemnation and rejection and shame from God. She stopped me and said, “Let’s stop right there. Let’s name what the truth is. That stuff of shamefulness and condemnation is your stuff, not God’s. That stuff that leads to shamefulness and condemnation is not the God we believe in. It may be a parental figure or a figure of authority, but it isn’t God. That is not the God of Jesus Christ.” She was reminding me, as Zacchaeus’ story does, a fundamental belief of our Christian tradition and that is that nobody is beyond the possibility of conversion. Nobody is beyond healing and forgiveness. There is no deed, no behavior, no way of life, no matter how guilt-ridden or even shameful that cannot be turned around in a new wholesome direction.

This wonderful story of Zacchaeus and his encounter face to face with Jesus is both challenging and comforting to us. We are challenged, like Zacchaeus, to accept Jesus’ invitation to be with Him face to face, challenged to look at our own lives and determine what is really going on. What is really fueling our capacity to sin? But we are wonderfully encouraged by this story of Jesus’ encounter with Zacchaeus. We are encouraged by the fact that we can never be so lost, so low or so riddled with sin that we cannot respond to the constant offer of God’s embrace of love and forgiveness. God invites Himself in. God invites Himself in, for God wants us to be whole and at peace even more than we do. The words of that first reading from the Book of Wisdom captures our belief and our hope. God loves all things that are and loathes nothing that He has made. Thanks be to God this is so!