Gospel (Lk 19,1-10) - At that time, Jesus entered the city of Jericho and was passing through it, when behold, a man named Zacchaeus, chief of the tax collectors and a rich man, was trying to see who Jesus was, but he was unable to do so because of the crowd, because he was small. of stature. He then ran forward and, to be able to see him, he climbed a sycamore tree, because he had to pass that way. When he arrived at the place, Jesus looked up and said to him: «Zacchaeus, come down immediately, because today I have to stop at your house». He quickly came down and welcomed him full of joy. Seeing this, everyone murmured: "He has entered the house of a sinner!". But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord: "Behold, Lord, I give half of what I possess to the poor and, if I have stolen from anyone, I will pay back four times as much." Jesus answered him: «Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. Indeed, the Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost."

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

Jesus teaches us to look around us with the attentive eye of love, that he does not judge, that he takes nothing for granted, that he always finds the reason for hope. Nobody hoped anything about Zacchaeus: he was a rich man, we would say today "accomplished" even if in dishonesty, but he was also small, short in stature, perhaps also in heart, worried about his business and his things, which he had without many scruples accumulated even by stealing. What do you hope for from a man like that? More shenanigans? What is Jesus going to do at his house? This is what many right-thinking people who are starting to "murmur" must have thought. "Murmuring", "gossip", "chatter" belong to those who only know how to see evil, and it is easy to fall into slander, because in front of sinners it is easy to feel righteous. Jesus looks at Zacchaeus with the eyes of God, without contempt, only with love. «Today I have to stop at your house!». It is the good news for Zacchaeus, it is his Gospel, and ours too, because these words make us ask ourselves if we do not also need Jesus to stop in our home, in our heart and in our life. The real sin is not loving. And the Gospel, the good news, is to say that God loves everyone and wants to come to our home. Jesus entered Zacchaeus' house so that Zacchaeus too would know love and feel loved. Jesus wants to have dinner with Zacchaeus, and for the Bible, having dinner with someone means becoming intimate with them, being part of their life. And it is often difficult for us to think of God in our life, with his mistakes, his mistakes, our sin! Jesus does not reproach Zacchaeus for anything: «he did not look at the sin of man, with a view to repentance». Jesus does not condemn him, but enters his house and asks to have dinner together, to share his life as it is even with his sin because he wants to forgive him. God, perhaps, is still waiting for permission to enter our house and dine with us. And in the joy of that meeting it is not heavy "to give half of the goods to the poor, and if he has defrauded someone, to repay four times as much".