Zacchaeus the Tax Collector

Therefore, since the water was flowing in vain at the spring, many of the residents stood by, not because of thirst, but drawn into a craving by the sight of the unbeneficial waters.

They could not cure the passion of thirst, as if mocking it, saying: 'Why do you flow in vain, O spring? You would have been better if you were not visible, but flowing in mountains and sands and in deserts, where you would not have had many witnesses to evil.'

And why was the water remote? Because it struck those who were drinking; for if a man drank from it, he did not become a father, nor did a woman become a mother, having lost the grace of mothers.

And not only this, but also the earth, having received the stream, refused the usual load of ears of grain, and the leafy graces of the vines were stripping off their garment, and to say collectively, everything became a desert as if unjustly fallen into the water.

Such was the spring that used to surround Jericho, until the prophet Elisha came and, taking salt and casting it upon the spring, revived the waters. 'These indeed,' he says, 'says the Lord: I have healed these waters.'

These says the one always speaking and bringing the word into deed: 'Let neither barrenness nor sterility be among you anymore' (Hosea 1:9). He said, and the water was changed and bellies became pregnant and the earth gave forth ears of grain and the clusters flourished and the olive showed its domestic grace.

And the residents used to frequent the spring by custom, formerly fighting and being fought, but later desiring and being neighbors.

And what does the riddle of the spring intend to say, it is necessary to speak? This spring, flowing abundantly yet uselessly and pouring out a stream of barrenness, preserves the word of the Church.

For before Christ it was so unrighteous that even a man drinking from the spring of the water itself lost his being as a man, and by the entanglement of idols of the rational soul, denying his nature and woman...

She had not become a mother of virtues, nor had she produced shoots of prudence, nor did the white milk of piety flow from her. But as she was in this state, the Lord came, and having cast the apostles as salt, he cured her and made her drinkable.

And that the apostles were salt, listen to Christ saying to them: 'You are the salt of the earth' (Matt 5:13). But since the barren and unfruitful woman has become very fruitful by receiving the salt of the apostles, the prophet says: 'Rejoice,' he says, 'the barren one who does not give birth; break forth and cry out, the one not in labor, for the children of the desert are many more than those of her who has a husband' (Isa 54:1).'

Jesus went toward Jericho, the spring, near the well-nourished ones of the spring, the all-powerful grace toward the much-wooded and much-rivered city. And behold, a man called by name Zacchaeus, and he himself was a chief tax collector. It was a double evil, for he also unjustly practiced a craft and was the leader of those practicing it badly; not only sinning but also receiving evils from others.

For he was cutting a path of injustice for strangers, building up walls against travelers; for he was neither imitating robbers by seizing those passing by, nor was he waiting for travelers with a zeal for hospitality, but having injustice as a law, he inflicted labors upon strangers, imitating the unceasing hunger of the tax-gatherers. For just as the collectors of the bees harvest the honey without sharing in the labors, so also the tax-collectors of the strangers and travelers seize the labors idly, relaxing and sitting at the crossroads.

Someone was sailing the sea, fighting billows, warring with winds, cutting through the long and difficult sea, but Zacchaeus took the profit to the end. A shepherd, living with the sharp edge and the burning, with rain and snow and frost, having a hut in the recesses of the rocks, food of cheese and milk, a garment of unworked sheepskin, but this man...