31st Sunday - can we dehumanize the rich

I'm not usually one to talk a whole lot about politics, and there's a certain reticence in the Church to take any real sides in politics.  Mostly it's because it's very difficult to endorse this or that position without giving the appearance of endorsing a whole party platform.  I think it's fair to say that the Church has some serious concerns about both party platforms.  Neither party really reflects the Church's teachings.  Both had pluses and minuses in different areas.  Of course some issues are most certainly more important than others, but that doesn't give us cause to simply ignore one area of Church teaching because another might seem more critical right now.

Now that was an awful long disclaimer before I make this statement.  It's been a while since we've heard much from the occupy movement, and I certainly think we could find any number of issues with what they say, yet, there was one cry they kept making.  They kept talking about the 99% and the 1%.  They kept talking about economic inequality, about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.  In many ways, when we look at the reality of our world.  Those things certainly are concerns.  Those are real issues that really do need to be addressed.  Sometimes the poor can be invisible to us.  Sometimes we can get so caught up in our own lives that we don't realize how people are suffering right next door to us.  Certainly there are great inequalities in the world that need to be addressed. 

Yet, there's also a danger there, a danger that I think became painfully obvious very quickly.  That attitude can bring an "us vs. them" mentality.  When we talk about the 1 and the 99, we're all very eager to point our finger at someone else and say…it's their fault.  We look and say, I'm not a multi-millionaire.  I'm not in the 1%.  I'm the one getting picked on, so let's blame them.  We're not quite so eager to look at ourselves and say…gosh maybe I need to look at my own actions. 

So today when we hear the story of Zacchaeus, it's an interesting little story, that I think shows us in the Gospel how we should really face some of these concerns.  In the ancient world, taxes operated a bit differently.  The tax collector was told to raise "x" number of dollars, and so he took soldiers along and demanded whatever he could.  It was expected that he would take more than what was required, and whatever extra he took, he could keep.  That was how he got his own money to live.  Now since the rich often had more political power, it was often easier to simply extort more from the poor because they couldn't fight back.  Walk up to a poor family with a few soldiers and say "pay up or else."  If he tried that with a rich family, he'd get far more resistance.  They might actually fight back.

Yet somewhere, deep in his soul, Zacchaeus must have seen the trouble he was in.  He must have known what he was doing was wrong.  Yet, how to get out of it, how to change?  He obviously had been very interested in Jesus, for a proud, wealthy man to climb up in a tree.  Yet, Jesus saw into his heart and greeted him with humanity.  While the rest of the community despised him for his sins, Jesus looked him in the eye and demanded respect, both for Zacchaeus, and from Zaccheus.  Jesus had a reputation for forgiving sins.  He went to dine at Zacchaeus's house and the people began to grumble.  Imagine the scene.  Jesus had put Zacchaeus on the spot.  Knowing that Jesus could forgive sins, here was his chance.  Jesus had forced the people to look at him as a human being, not a monster, and Zacchaeus had an opportunity.  What would he do? what would he say?  Then, he made the decision.  He chose to give back what he had taken.  He chose to try to be more fair.  But it's important to realize that it was Jesus, through his actions, that gave him the chance to change, that confronted him and the people and said…what will you do.

It's very easy to play the us vs. them game.  It's easy to blame the rich that we'll probably never meet for the poor that we don't see.  It's much harder to do as Jesus calls us to, and recognize the humanity in both of them.  I've seen many people, right here in our parish, some well to do, some not so well off.  Some willing to share and wanting to help in any way they can, others who couldn't be bothered.  There's an old saying, "no good deed goes unpunished"  When we see someone work to change, try to turn around in their lives, even if it's not as big a leap as zacchaeus.  Do we jump all over them and say, "well that's a good start, but…" because they didn't do more, or do we try to thank them for what they have done, realizing the many of their peers may not have even made it to that level?    We talk a lot about the dehumanizing of the poor, but Zacchaeus shows us an odd little glimpse into something we don't talk about.  Do we stereotype and dehumanize the rich?  Are we gracious and encourage them to do more?  Do we work to be a community of many people with different gifts, or do we simply blame everyone around us.  It's a funny thing, but sometimes even if we're absolutely right, simply criticizing people for not doing more isn't nearly as helpful as thanking them for what they do right.