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Theme : |
26th Sunday of
the Year September 30 |
| 1st. Reading: | Amos 6:1, 4-7 | |
| 2nd Reading: | Timothy 6:11-16 | |
| Gospel : | Luke 16:19-31 |
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Dear Friend, It is surprising that those who have much are often greedy; while those who have little always have much to share. Is our sole purpose in life to be rich and possess much? Thomas Merton said, “If you have money consider that perhaps the only reason God allowed it to fall into your hands was in order to find joy in throwing it away.” Have a joyful weekend sharing what you have with others. Fr. Jude Botelho |
Amos speaks to the wealthy people in Zion close to the mountains of Samaria, who
feel secure with their wealth and riches. They spend their time in comfort
sprawled on their divans, wining and dining in luxury. “Woe to you.” he warns
them, “Your music and revelry will be reduced to silence and sorrow.” Amos is
the prophet of social justice and he chastises those who enjoy themselves at the
expense of the poor. A prophet in spite of himself, he lashes at the wealthy
families of the northern kingdom. Their indifference to the miseries of the poor
and their insensitivities to the ruin of the northern kingdom will be punished
by exile. Amos points to the shallowness, of comfort and security provided by
wealth.
Caring and sharing with the poor
Dr. Samuel Johnson was a great lexicographer, writer, critic and
conversationalist. He was the first one to make an attempt to write the English
Dictionary. William Barclay gives this account of his kindness and generosity.
“Surely one of the loveliest pictures in literary history is the picture of
Johnson, in his own days of poverty, coming home in the small hours of the
morning, and as he walked along the Strand, slipping pennies into the hands of
waifs and strays who were sleeping in the doorways because they had no where
else to go. When someone asked him how he could bear to have his house filled
with ‘necessitous and undeserving people’ , Johnson answered, “If I did not
assist them no one else would, and they must not be lost for want.” Dr. Johnson
cared and was concerned about the beggars and the strays that flocked to him.
- John Rose in “John’s Sunday Homilies”
In the second reading from Paul to Timothy, the central message is a certitude:
the eternal life which Christ will offer at the last times, when he will reveal
himself. To gain salvation the disciple of Jesus will have to fight the good
fight of faith, persevere in hope, and remain faithful in love. Paul reminds the
people of God that their duty is to be faithful to God and not go after material
things.
In today’s Gospel Jesus tells the story of two men, a rich man and a poor man.
The rich man dresses magnificently and feasts lavishly everyday. The rich man is
not only rich in clothes and food but is also rich in privileges and in the
freedom enjoys from all that besets the poor. His privilege conceals from him
his responsibilities; it blinds him to the man who lies at his own gate. He is
not a bad man but one who is wrapped up in his own world, insensitive to the
needs of others around him. In contrast to the rich man there is Lazarus, who is
clothed in rags and covered with sores. Lying at the gate, he has no food. He
does not beg for food, but hopes for scraps that fall from the masters table,
which the dogs fight for. He is not a bad man but one who is in need, but whom
no one cares for. He dies at the gate of the rich man and is buried.
The next scene is the after life where there is a reversal of fortunes. Lazarus
is now well dressed and enjoying the choicest food at the heavenly banquet. In
contrast the rich man is in torment and the flames which surround him represent
the destruction of everything he valued. This agony creates awareness and a
compassion for his brothers and he hopes Lazarus can return to earth to warn
them. His regret and compassion are not enough and no warning can be given to
his brothers. They have the teachings of scripture to warn them and the poor at
their gates could be their salvation. Like the brothers on earth, we have the
scripture to warn us of the dangers of riches and overindulgence, and we have
Lazarus –the poor at our gates. We also have someone who did rise from the dead
who constantly reminds us of the way to heaven. That is more than enough.
Vanity of Wealth
The famous Greek law-giver Solon once went on a vacation to the town of Lydia,
in what is now the country of Turkey. It boasted to have the richest king in the
world, named Croesus. Solon, the great philosopher, -quite detached from all
possessions of this world –decided to visit the man who seemed to find all his
happiness in wealth. As soon as he got to the place, Croesus decided to show his
vaults. “What do you think of that?” he demanded triumphantly. But Solon kept
silent and so the king went on, “Who do you think is the happiest man in the
world? The philosopher thought for a moment, and then named two obscure Greeks
whose names Croesus had never heard before. The king was angry of being cheated
out of a compliment, so he asked sharply for an explanation. Solon answered, “No
man, my friend, can be considered really happy whose heart is wedded to material
things. They pass and their owner becomes a widow. To widows belongs grief. Or
to the man himself who passes away, and can take none of his gold with him.
Again it is only grief.”
- Frank Michalic in ‘”1000 stories you can use”
“The rich man and Lazarus is a parable that must be well ‘read’. A rich man,
merely, not a wicked man, and then Lazarus, who is simply there, asking nothing.
Between these two yawns an unbridgeable gap, apparently. A chasm of ignorance,
egoism, self-sufficiency has opened around the one who enjoys himself, his
slumbering conscience untouched by poverty’s reproach. The one who lives so well
must take care, death can be upsetting. Spiritual stiffness lies in wait for
him, who is unable to accept the call to change his ways…. Then, can the rich be
saved? Happily, they can, and thanks to the poor. Here the poor are the
petitioners for the rich, up above it will be the rich who petition the poor to
remember the friendship they had for them, and how they shared their wealth with
them, and how they had benefited them. ‘In the Church’ Bossuet remarked, ‘the
rich are strangers. It is the poor they serve who grant them citizenship’. Today
more than ever, when so many like Lazarus lie at our doors, in our so called
affluent societies; so many also further away, in the Third World lands, who
wait for something more from us than magnificent reports and exploitation. Do we
know how to recognize these present-day replicas of Lazarus? ”
-Glenstal Bible Missal
Schweitzer and the Poor
Albert Schweitzer has been acclaimed the world over as a multiple genius. He was
an outstanding philosopher, a reputable theologian, a respected historian, a
concert soloist, and a missionary doctor. But the most remarkable thing about
him was his deep Christian faith. It was a faith that influenced even the
smallest details of his life. At the age of 21, Schweitzer promised himself that
he would enjoy art and science until he was 30. Then he would devote the rest of
his life to working among the needy in some direct form of service. And so on
his 30th birthday, on October 13, 1905, he dropped several letters into a Paris
mailbox. They were to his parents and closest friends, informing them that he
was going to enroll in the university to get a degree in medicine. After that he
was going to Africa to work among the poor as a missionary doctor. The letters
created a stir and many berated him and questioned his decision. Nevertheless,
Schweitzer stuck to his guns. At the age of 38, he became a full-fledged medical
doctor. At the age of 43, he left for Africa where he opened a hospital at the
edge of the jungle in what was then called Equatorial Africa. He died there in
1965 at the age of 90. What motivated Albert Schweitzer to turn his back on
worldly fame and wealth and work among the poorest of the poor in Africa? He
said that one of the influences was his meditation on today’s gospel about the
rich man and Lazarus. He said: “It struck me as incomprehensible that I should
be allowed to live such a happy life, while so many people around me were
wresting with…..suffering.”
- Mark Link in ‘Sunday Homilies’
May we discover our calling to share with the poor the riches we all have!
Fr. Jude Botelho