31st Sunday in Ordinary Time C
October 30, 2022
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A child who smashes a window may repent and be forgiven but he can’t repair it or pay for its repair. Similarly, we need someone to take on the consequences of Adam and Eve’s rebellion, writes Father Hawskwell. (B.C. Catholic)
Homily Transcripts
| Bloom | Chama | Chua | Cummins | Fleming | Hawkswell | Holsington |
| Kavanaugh | Lane | Langeh | Lawrence | McKinnon | Pavone | Pellegrino |
| Powell | Schuster | Senior | Smiga | Terra | Turner | Wester |
FR. VINCENT HAWKSWELL
God is Infinitely Patient with Us
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) – 2019
Like any creator, God loves what he has created
EXCERPT: God created Adam and Eve in friendship and familiarity with himself, says the Catechism of the Catholic Church. From the very beginning, he planned to divinize them: to let them share his own divine life by knowledge and love. However, “seduced by the devil,” they tried to become divine by themselves, “without God, before God, and not in accordance with God.” Now God is all-knowing and all-powerful. Why did he not make Adam and Eve so perfect that they would not fall for the devil’s lie?
FR. GEORGE SMIGA
Welcome Home
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) – 2004
The story of Zacchaeus reminds us that nothing we have done should be a reason that we stop seeking God in our life.
EXCERPT: In this beautiful story from Luke’s Gospel, we learn something important about us and something important about God. We are meant to identify with Zacchaeus in the story, and Zacchaeus was not a perfect person. He was a tax collector. Therefore he cooperated with the Roman oppressors and often times used his authority to enrich himself. He was a wealthy man and his hands were not clean. But the best quality about Zacchaeus is that, even though he knew his shortcomings and flaws, he was not afraid to seek God. When he heard about Jesus, he wanted to meet him. He didn’t know what he would find in meeting Jesus, but he was determined to have the experience. So setting aside any convenience or dignity, he ran ahead and climbed a Sycamore Tree.
RELATED HOMILIES
- Action as the Solution Luke 19:1-10 November 4, 2007
- Standing with the Crowd October 31, 2010 Luke 19:1-10
- Zacchaeus Moments November 3, 2013 Luke 19:1-10
- Inadequacies and Grace October 30, 2016 Luke 19:1-10
- The Value of Inadequacies October 27, 2019 Luke 19:1-10
FR. AUSTIN FLEMING
How God Sees Things
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) – 2019
If we find it difficult to look in the mirror, then let us look to the Cross.
EXCERPT: Zacchaeus thought he was too short to see the Lord. What shortcomings in our lives, yours and mine, keep us from seeing the Lord? meeting him? getting to know him better? When we look in the mirror in the morning, do we see only our shortcomings? do we see only what we don’t like about ourselves? Or do we see a person loved and forgiven by God? In his Word and in the Sacrament of his presence, Jesus is passing through here this morning as surely as he passed through Jericho. None of us needs to climb a tree to see him and to each of us, Jesus says, as he meets us, “Come to me, come quickly. Today I must stay at your house today I want to rest in the house of your heart.”
MSGR. JOSEPH PELLEGRINO
Lost in a Crowd, Found in Christ
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) – 2022
Jesus searched for us and called to us… and we have found ourselves in Jesus Christ.
EXCERPT: Have you ever felt lost? I don’t mean lost on a car trip, or lost on a hike, but lost in life. Maybe there are a lot of people around you, but you still feel lost. A Mom can have a big family, but can still feel lost. Her day is filled with the chatter of children. She loves them, but she sees herself as defined as the car driver, the diaper changer, the feeder, the cleaner. She still feels lost. “Who am I?” she might be asking. A high school student might also feel very much lost in a very large crowd. He, she, might go from class to class, assembly to assembly and get to where he is supposed to be, but he still feels lost. “I’m just a number to the administration of the school. I’m in the middle of a huge number of kids, but I am hardly noticed.”
FR. MICHAEL CHUA
Zacchaeus Come Down
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) – 2019
The liturgy guides us towards a desire to worship God and not ourselves.
EXCERPT:We too are invited to climb that tree of the cross if we wish to see Jesus, for the cross is the tree of life. And it is at every Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, that we encounter once again our Lord who climbed the tree of the cross for our sake. As the cross is the means of our salvation, our liturgy too saves us from ourselves – Good liturgy puts the brakes on narcissism. Notice that we are bombarded throughout the week with secular ‘liturgies’ (social media, rituals of affirmation we receive at home, at work or in school) that guide our loves and desires towards ‘me, me, me’, rather than God. It’s a self-focused kingdom: a kingdom that loves me and only me. But liturgy protects us from simply making worship into a self-pleasing act. Church then, is meant to be the place away from it all. The home away from self-display. It’s meant to be the place where the liturgy guides us towards a desire to worship God and not ourselves. And that is why applauding during the mass should be discouraged. It’s not because I’m a fuddy-duddy grumpy old priest who frowns on laughter and fun. It is because our applause takes away our focus from what is most significant. Pope Benedict XVI said: “Wherever applause breaks out in the liturgy because of some human achievement, it is a sure sign that the essence of liturgy has totally disappeared and been replaced by a kind of religious entertainment.”
FR. FRANK PAVONE
Those Pushed Aside by the Crowd
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
The Zacchaeus story shows our Lord’s eagerness to seek out those whom others are tempted to look down on.
EXCERPT: The Church, through which Jesus continues to carry out his mission today, does the same thing, and therefore speaks up for those pushed aside by the crowd, especially the smallest of the small, the unborn. Their lives, like ours, are not just the handiwork of God, but a continuous proof of his love. The first reading reminds us that at every moment God is sustaining each one of us with the breath of life. We would fall back into nothingness at once if God did not have his love focused on us in an uninterrupted way. To snuff out a life, therefore, whether of the born or the unborn, is a direct contradiction to God’s loving will, which sustains all things in being.
FR. EVANS CHAMA, M.AFR
“He Too is a Son of Abraham”
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) – 2016
Jesus looks at Zacchaeus the way God looks at us.
EXCERPT:Who’s this tax collector? He works to collect tax for the detested colonial, Roman government. Besides, he takes advantage of the oppressive system to make himself rich by demanding people to pay more than is required. It’s for that he’s not only hated but he’s also considered as public sinner. That explains the scandal it causes when Jesus, a respectable Jew, makes himself a guest of Zacchaeus. Apparently, People around see in him nothing more than a collaborator with enemies and an immoral person. But is that all? Jesus remarks: “He too is a son of Abraham” which means that this hated tax collector, and a cheat, is also one of the chosen people, and thus, equally called to inherit the kingdom of heaven.
ABBOT PHILIP LAWRENCE, OSB
Seeking Wisdom
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) – 2016
Are we willing to make fools of ourselves so that we can see Jesus?
EXCERPT: The Book of Wisdom, from which comes our first reading today, tells us “you overlook people’s sins that they may repent.” We hear this statement more frequently during the time of Lent, but it is important that we recognize its truth always. This first reading points us clearly to the Gospel from Saint Luke today, where we meet the tax collector, Zacchaeus. Jesus asks this tax collector to come and eat at his house, and Zacchaeus promises that he will repay anything that he has taken unjustly and also give half of his belongings to the poor. That is real repentance!
FR. JUDE LANGEH,CMF
Welcome Christ and be Saved
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
Nobody is beyond redemption and there are no limits to the possibility of Salvation offered by Jesus.
EXCERPT: Our Gospel presents us with the story of Zacchaeus, who accepts Jesus into his home and his heart. Zacchaeus was a prestigious man, and he was a wealthy man. He got rich from unjustly stealing the money of people. He was considered as a bad man in the community. People boycotted him and would not come close to him because he was a cheat and a tax-collector for the Roman forces. Popular estimation had written him off as lost. Zacchaeus was a little man with a significant big problem! He desired sincerely to see Christ, up to the extent of climbing on a tree. Dear Friends, do you really want to see Jesus? Zacchaeus was so short that he could not see above all the people in the crowd. Another reason too is that he was so far away from Jesus because of his sins. He sincerely wanted to come close to Christ. Those who sincerely desire a sight of Christ, like Zaccheus, will break through opposition and all barriers to see him. No one is too sinful to come close to God. He was an example of Jesus’ personal, earthly mission to bring Salvation to the lost.
FR. PHIL BLOOM
FR. TOMMY LANE
YEAR C HOMILIES
This website is by Fr. Tommy Lane, S.S.L., S.T.D. (License in Sacred Scripture, Doctorate in Sacred Theology), returning again to my home diocese, Cloyne, Ireland in fall 2020 and formerly Professor of Sacred Scripture at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, Emmitsburg, Maryland. I have deliberately designed this as a website rather than a blog because many of the more than 2000 visitors to this website every day are priests and deacons looking for homily ideas.
FATHER MICHAEL CUMMINS
DIOCESE OF KNOXVILLE
“Don’t be afraid, dear friends, to take the ‘alternate’ path indicated by true love: a sober and solid lifestyle, with loving, sincere and pure relations, an honest commitment to studies and work, and the profound interest in the common good.” Pope Benedict XVI to the young pilgrims gathered in Loreto, Italy
FR. JOHN KAVANAUGH, SJ
Zacchaeus
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) – 1997
God overlooks our sins so that we might repent and thereby change.
EXCERPT: It is always fascinating to see how Jesus treats sinners, whether tax-collectors, liars, adulterers, or cowards. It’s a wonder how he deals with them, how he deals with us all, how he deals with all things. Clearly, Jesus is interested in the energy and desire of the little man. He seems impressed by the fact that Zacchaeus would go to such lengths to see him and would eventually stand his ground before the daunting crowd. It is Zacchaeus’s heart, his hope, that draws Jesus.
SOURCE: SUNDAY WEB SITE
FR. JOHN MCKINNON
HOMILIES
These are a fairly inclusive collection of John McKinnon’s homilies. He began to type his Sunday homilies regularly since 2005, and saved them to his computer for possible later use. For some Sundays, homilies are not available, either because John was absent on holidays that year, a major feast occurred on that day, or he had some other reason for not preaching. These are provided as a possible starting point in preparation for the Sunday Liturgy.
FR. PHILIP N. POWELL, OP
BISHOP FRANK SCHUSTER
Zacchaeus is Surprised by Grace
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) – 2019
If we accept Jesus invitation today and welcome him into our homes, into our hearts, into our souls like Zacchaeus, an amazing thing just might happen…
EXCERPT:What are the areas in our lives that feel “short in stature”, so to speak, that simply don’t measure up the way they should? What are the areas in our lives that feel stuck in a tree, a place where we long to see Jesus, but perhaps only from a distance? How are we like the townspeople, grumbling that Jesus would have the audacity to give the time of day to a known sinner? Can we enter into this story for a moment, and see Jesus looking straight at us with a patient love and hear his words, “Come down from that tree. Today I must stay at your house”? What is our response? What would that look like for my house today, if Jesus wanted to stay there?
Recent/Upcoming Homilies
MSGR. RUSSELL G TERRA
FR. PAUL TURNER
FR. DONALD WESTER
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