Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Today's Mass Readings

There is a surprising connection between our Old Testament reading and our Gospel reading for the day. Both describe similar events, but they appear contrary to each other. Eleazar faces martyrdom because he refuses to take up the practices of an alien religion. Jesus faces ridicule because “he has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.” Eleazar was being coerced to eat pork, which was unlawful for a Jew. Ultimately, he could have kept his life without even eating it; by only pretending to eat pork, he could have escaped the death penalty. Faced with this option, Eleazar still chose death. “What worth would it be to me?” he asks. “There are many who look up to me, and if I were to pretend, they would be led astray by my example.” Eleazar would rather die than cause scandal. Jesus on the other hand surely seems to cause scandal by going with Zacchaeus. In both situations, it appears to be the “sinner” that is being avoided.

The Greeks, Eleazar’s persecutors, are in the same boat as Zacchaeus. Both are classified by onlookers as sinners. The strange thing is that Eleazar would rather die than lead his people to associate with them, but Jesus freely associates himself with them. To make sense of these opposing scenarios as pointing to the same message, we must recognize who we are in the stories. We are the sinners, or the lost, whom the Son of man has come to seek and to save. There is no wrong action on Eleazar’s part, and obviously, Jesus hasn’t acted wrongly. Rather, if we compare ourselves with the sinners, we can find a valuable lesson. In the face of truth, we can either violently deny it like the Greeks, or we can embrace it wholeheartedly like Zacchaeus. Either way, the truth cannot change, and we will learn it the easy way or the hard way.

Reflection by Kaleb, seminarian