Nothing raises the soul like repentance; Zacchaeus as model

Nothing rouses the soul to gladness like the fear of God, turning away from evil, the course of repentance, and the way of confession. That is why David today blessed those who had received forgiveness of sins, showing at once Christ's love for humanity and preparing sinners to run to repentance. “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,” he says, “and whose sins are covered” (Psalm 31:1 LXX; Psalm 32:1 in the Hebrew numbering). So let every prostitute and tax collector run to the inexhaustible springs of Christ's salvation. Without it there is no release from evils and no attaining the blessing, whether you speak of prophets, apostles, or evangelists. For all drew from the same spring. Among the prophets, David himself, even after adultery, is still a prophet now through the grace of the One who forgave him. Among the apostles, Peter and Paul: the one, after his denial, holds the keys of the kingdom; the other, after his persecution, was appointed apostle to the Gentiles, turning his Jewish zeal into an evangelical way of life. In the Gospels I know not only Matthew being saved from among the tax collectors, but two others with him. One of them, by praying, by beating his breast—the treasury of evils—by not daring to raise his hands to the holy things, by bowing down, was not only justified but crowned above the Pharisee. Zacchaeus, for his part, climbed the tree where he had often stood watching to see whether some merchant might slip past unnoticed so that he would not go without profit; he was keeping watch so that the Merchant of heaven and earth, the One carrying the inviolable treasure of the kingdom, might not run past him unnoticed.

But so that we do not entirely confuse the stories of the tax collectors, let us, if you agree, take Zacchaeus alone today as the subject of our treatment and expand our discourse. “Jesus went out,” it says, “and was passing through Jericho, and behold, a man named Zacchaeus, and he was a chief tax collector” (Luke 19:1). The evangelist does not mention Jericho without purpose, but because he is speaking of a tax collector who welcomed God into his home. The matter was hard to believe. He sets his homeland before us, so that when we remember Rahab the prostitute we may not be shocked at the strange turning back of Zacchaeus. This is why he mentioned Jericho: so that, calling to mind Rahab the prostitute, we may compare the manner of salvation of both. For just as Rahab the prostitute received Joshua son of Nun as a spy and hid him, so Zacchaeus the tax collector received the true Jesus, who spies out our minds, into his home and nourished him. She received Joshua son of Nun, who led the people into the land of promise; this man receives the true Jesus, who leads into the kingdom of heaven. She received Joshua, who razed the temple of the Jews; this man received the true Jesus, who foretold that razing. For he says, “Not one stone will be left here upon another that will not be thrown down” (Matthew 24:2). She received Joshua, who led the people through the Jordan into a land flowing with milk and honey; this man received the true Jesus, who through baptism leads the faithful to what no eye has seen and no ear has heard and what has not entered the human heart (1 Corinthians 2:9). She received Joshua, who brought the cluster of grapes out of the land on a tree; this man welcomed the true Jesus, [The text is damaged here.] this man welcomed the true Jesus, who brought the thief into paradise.

The spring of Jericho was formerly a mother of barrenness, a nurse of unfruitfulness, its water incomplete. Its stream flowed silently, like oil flowing without a sound, but the sight of its waters left those who looked on thirsting. Drinking was not without danger for those in need, for its current was deadly. The beauty of the spring stirred passersby to run toward it, but the fear of harm cut short their eagerness.