Tuesday, November 21, 2023
Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Three older men
I suppose, at age 74, that I might be midway between the old man Eleazar, age 90, and the middle-aged man Zaccheus. Reflecting on my own 3 AMs, I imagine their late-night thoughts, as they each consider what will probably happen the following day.
Eleazar, one of the foremost scribes, a man of advanced age and noble appearance, was being forced to open his mouth to eat pork.
Eleazar knew from long experience that governors and kings had little in common with the Lord of the Universe. They imagined themselves as creators; God did all the creating there was to do, and never stopped, yet humbled himself to leave his throne and love his children, those he made day after day, each one precious in his sight.
Eleazar no longer craved longer life on earth. He had breathed earthly air millions of times into his lungs. The heart God created had beaten billions of times. It still beat, now in the depths of the night. He still breathed, as the darkness began to break into dawn. And with each breath, his mind quieted into place, settling into where God had made it to be, into a place of worship.
Preferring a glorious death to a life of defilement, he spat out the meat and went forward of his own accord to the instrument of torture, as people ought to do, those who have the courage to reject the food which it is unlawful to taste even for love of life.
He would disappoint his younger brothers, refusing their request that he pretend to eat the pork he was commanded to eat, or die. He expected them later to be grateful that he stood up for Yahweh, choosing death rather than disobedience to God. He knew many of his friends and those who knew his situation already loved him for his words of love for God, and for his words of disdain for those who pretended to run his life from their stanchions outside God’s will.
“Send me at once to the abode of the dead,” he would tell them. “By giving up my life now I will prove myself worthy of my old age, and I will leave with the young a noble example of how to die, willingly and generously, for the revered and holy laws.”
“Caw, caw,” brayed the crows of illegitimate and brazen government. “Coo, coo,” sang the doves of God’s Holy Spirit, as yet unnamed but not unnoticed.
Thus Eleazar sat on the side of his bed, hearing the birds greet the day, ready to die.
Then a few hundred years later, in a new Israel abuzz with stories of Jesus from Nazareth, a well-established “businessman” who had passed his tax collecting duties on to his employees while he considered investments and the most profitable foreclosures, also suddenly heard the birds. Crows and doves, black and blue birds, perching on the tiles of his roof, caught his attention. That had never happened. His mathematical mind stirred again, and then fell silent. The gears quit turning.
Clearly this man named Zacchaeus was in for something new. It did not come from his own thoughts, but still it found a home within his heart. He realized this place inside himself had always been there, but only now, even today, did he care. Zacchaeus had never cared much about the feelings of others, nor of his own feelings. Dickens would have had him say, “Humbug! Let’ get on with the Construction of Profit, and keep up appearances as best we can. If I don’t take care of myself, no one else will.”
Zacchaeus was seeking to see who Jesus was. But he was short in stature, and he could not see Jesus.
That night as he tried to sleep he suddenly knew his profit was meaningless. It was not the profit he should be striving for. It never had been. Jesus would be coming through his neighborhood tomorrow. He could not help himself, he must meet him.
Zacchaeus ran ahead of the crowd and climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus.
In their own way, the birds had showed him what to do. He followed them to the tree and climbed it, to a perch where he could see Jesus, and Jesus could see him. What a friend we have in Jesus. He had never heard the song, but he heard himself humming the tune.
Jesus looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, you come down! For I’m going to your house today.
In a flash, Zacchaeus stood there and spoke to the Lord.
Half of my possessions, I shall give to the poor. If I have extorted anything from anyone, I shall repay it four times over! Jesus looked at him and said, “Today salvation has come to this house. The Son of Man has come to seek and to save what is lost.”
Let me join you, Eleazar, walking up to the executioner, hands outstretched. “Take me now!”
Let the moments when Jesus has once again restored my sight give me strength and will to climb a sycamore with Zacchaeus and wait for Jesus to look up, and to see what he will say.
Can I listen? Can I hear? Open my ears, Lord, and give my arms and legs strength for one more climb.
(2 Maccabees 6, Psalm 3, 1 John 4, Luke 19)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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