The gaze that saves

The Gaze that Saves

What suddenly struck Zacchaeus? What made him run joyfully home? Was he making plans for his vast wealth? Did he want to generously return his ill-­gotten gains, to give half of his goods to the poor? What shook him and changed him? Quite simply, he had been penetrated and captured by a gaze that recognized and loved him for what he was. The ability to take hold of the heart of a man is the greatest, most persuasive miracle of all….

It is hard to find a person who is powerful, and yet truly good. In Jesus, by contrast, his witnesses were able to see that gaze, which was not only powerful and prodigious, intelligent, and captivating, but also good. It seems almost impossible for such great power to be contained within the bounds of profound goodness, ­difficult to find such sharp intelligence with such a positive simplicity, like a child’s instinctive show of affection and openness. How beautiful it is to read the Gospel and discover hints, the subtle details that reveal Jesus’ capacity for tenderness, his heartfelt solidarity with all human things.

Servant of God Luigi Giussani

Monsignor Giussani († 2005) was a priest of Milan, Italy, and founder of the ecclesial movement Communion and Liberation. [From At the Origin of the Christian Claim, Viviane Hewitt, Tr. © 1998, McGill-Queen’s University Press, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON. Used with 

A reading from 
the holy Gospel according to Luke19:1-10

At that time, Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town. Now a man there named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man, was seeking to see who Jesus was; but he could not see him because of the crowd, for he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a ­sycamore tree in order to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way. When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.” And he came down quickly and ­received him with joy. When they all saw this, they began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.” But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.” 

The Gospel of the Lord.