As we carefully read through both Old and New Testaments we encounter hundreds of different people. Many of them are nameless men and women who pass that way once, and are left to the memories of those who knew them, and the account told of them by the sacred writer. Other figures in the Bible we know by name. It is always easier to identify with someone – either a real person or even a character in a novel – when we know their name. Knowing someone’s name offers a sense of relationship, and allows us to even imagine what they look like. A name invokes an image. Even the most obscure person in the Old Testament becomes a real flesh-and-blood person when we put a name on him or her. 

Most of the people Jesus encountered in his ministry remain nameless. Many Pharisees, Sadducees, Rabbis, and scholars of the Law who debated or questioned Jesus are known only by their status or titles. Most of those who Jesus touched and healed are unknown to us. There are only a few whose names we know. Presumably, those who we know by name were also at some point after the resurrection, prominent within the early church. 

In the Gospel passage this weekend we meet a well-known figure in the ministry of Jesus, though he only appears once in the New Testament.

It is quite a scene. Jesus has traveled from Galilee to Jericho on his way to Jerusalem. This is the journey that will culminate in the great Passover and the Paschal Events. Jericho is the last stop on the way. From here Jesus and the disciples will make the great ascent up to Jerusalem. As he enters the city a crowd greets him. As would have been customary, a few of his disciples went ahead of him to prepare the residents of the city for his arrival. By this time, Jesus’s reputation is widespread, so his arrival brought out many who were curious for a variety of reasons. The mass of humanity that was pressing along Jesus and the disciples the narrow streets of Jericho proved to be too much for one man. Because of his short stature, and perhaps his unpopularity in the town as a tax collector, this man decided in his desire to get a glimpse of Jesus to take extreme action; he decided to climb a tree. But this wasn’t just any tree, it was a sycamore tree. Sycamore trees, which are common in the region, also live in the literary imagination of the people who lived there over the centuries. Symbolizing strength, vitality, and clarity of thought, the sycamore tree provided this man with both cover, as they tend to be very bushy in nature, and perspective. There was no doubt that he would be able to see Jesus from there, but he would have also expected that he would remain largely hidden from public view while up the tree. He could not have imagined how climbing that tree would change his life.

We have to expect that as Jesus seeing a man in the tree, turned to someone from the town, likely a disciple who lived in Jericho, to learn the name of the man in the tree. This enabled Jesus to be direct and clear as he calls out: “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.” 

While the townspeople, some of whom must have already been disciples of Jesus, groused that Jesus was dining with a sinner, Zacchaeus is about to embark on a whole new mission in his life: from greedy tax collector to generous disciple. 

As we discern our call in life – whatever the Lord is calling us to do with our lives – it is necessary for us to climb our own “sycamore tree” in order to gain perspective and clarity. This means attempting to shut out the world and to quiet the noise. At times, however, when we are afraid of what the Lord might be calling us to, we can take the opposite approach. Sometimes we flee into the crowd to silence the voice of the Lord with the din of the noise of the crowd. 

Had Zacchaeus not had the courage, and indeed the predisposition, to seek refuge from the noise in order to see Jesus, he would have melded into the crowd. While he thought he was hidden he actually became obvious. Having learned his name, Jesus calls Zacchaeus out of the tree. 

It takes a name – it often takes being called by name – before we can come to understand where the Lord is leading us. Just as it took one of his disciples to tell Jesus the name of the man up the tree, it still takes a disciple to present that name to the Lord. 

When we look around our families, our schools, our parishes, our neighborhoods, we see someone, even at times someone whose life at the moment seems to be in a state of confusion, who has that certain something that is different. We might even have a passing or even unconscious sense that maybe he should be a priest or a religious brother, or maybe that she could be a professed sister or nun, but, we are afraid to say something. 

In response of our call as disciples of Jesus to evangelize the world, there also comes the time to speak with clarity to someone who may not have that clarity in their own life. 

We are invited this weekend to call someone by name. The church invites us to reflect on those people in our lives who need to hear a word of clarity, to be called by name so that he can get startled out of his doubt or complacency and to hear more clearly the call of the Lord in his life. 

Yes, it takes courage to write a name and present that person for a conversation about the mission and vocation that the Lord is calling him to in his life, but we never know until we ask what might be burning inside of the heart of someone who is waiting to be called out of the tree and into a deeper relationship with the Lord.