(Reflection for the 26th
Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C. Amos 6:1, 4-7; Ps 146; 1Tim 6:11-16; Lk
16:19-31)
The prophet of social justice, Amos,
ushered in the message of today. He announced the reversal of fortune for the
self-indulgent, who are not grieved about
the ruin of Jacob! This warning is further elaborated by Jesus in the
parable of the rich man and Lazarus. This parable has a lot of salient messages
for us today as we try to live out Christian values amidst our desire for
wealth.
There was a rich man...This is how
Jesus began the story. The name of the name was not mentioned. He is identified
and defined as “rich man”. His wealth has become his identity. His name, his
real personality is subsumed in what he owns. Thus we can say that his possessed
by his possession; he has lost himself in wealth. This seems to be the
beginning of his journey to hell...
Who was clothed in purple and fine linen...
Imagine the man looking gorgeous. He wore beautiful and expensive clothes,
looking “glorious.” He clothe himself with the glory of earth, trying to
establish his own heaven in this suffering world. He dressed like one who has arrived but sooner he would come to
discover, lately though, that live here is a pilgrimage. We must dress up for
action.
Who feasted sumptuously every day...
The rich man ate without going hungry while his neighbour went hungry without
eating! Man does not live by bread alone (cf. Lk 4:4). And whatever enters a
man passes through the stomach and is discharged into the sewage (cf. Mt 15:17).
Food is meant for the stomach, and the stomach for food, but God will destroy
them both (cf. 1Cor 6:13). The man celebrated himself, and rewarded himself for
his good fortune. “I said to myself in my good fortune:
‘Nothing will ever disturb me.’ Your
favour has set me on a mountain fastness, then you hid your face and I was put
to confusion” (Ps 30:6-7). Thus the man tried to create his own satisfaction by
what he could consume. But real satisfaction lies in Jesus, and in what we can
do for others. It is not what a man consumes that makes him create, but what he
produces. Gluttony burdens the heart, and dulls our inner ear from hearing the
voice of God and the cry of the poor.
At his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus...
The rich man’s gate shielded him from any interference from Lazarus. He built
his own security and locked the poor out. The man put a barrier between him and
Lazarus. So he is the one who started building the impassable chasm from earth...How
often do we put barriers, segregate, form cliques and lock others out such that
we do not feel their pain!
But at the gate we meet Lazarus, a name
which means God has helped! The selfishness of the rich consigned him to
the gate. He was treated as less human, and not deserving of the good things of
life. Ironically, Jesus gives the poor man a name, a beautiful name! His name
is written in the book of life. He has an identity and dignity with God, and
only in God.
Full of sores, who desired to be fed with
what feel from the rich man’s table... His body is decorated with
wounds, long lasting wounds. These sores have become part of his body such that
he is identified and defined by them. We can see through them the eternal
wounds of Jesus that define our salvation!
Lazarus was also full of desire! He
never stopped desiring to be fed. That was why he never left the gate. He was
rich with desire. He kept his hope alive. In
hope we were saved (Rm 8:24). Why would he keep hoping even when he never
got what he desired? Knowing already that the rich man was stingy, Lazarus
could not have placed his hope in him. His hunger stretched his desire to hope
in God, an eternal longing. My help shall
come from the Lord, who made heaven and earth (Ps 121:2). He lies a poor
man, who desired for food but hoped in God...
Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores...This
statement portrays Lazarus as one caused. We remember the message of Elijah to
Ahab, “In the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, the dogs will
lick your blood too” (1Kg 21:19). “A pack of dogs surrounds me, a gang of
villains closing in on me as if to hack off my hands and my feet” (Ps 22:16). This
is the height of degradation! The dogs renew and deepen his sores. He who came
to feed from the rich man’s scraps has become food for the dogs. That makes
Lazarus become a sign that is rejected,
since what is thrown to the dogs is what is rejected (cf. Ex 22:30). He has
become the scraps he came to eat… “While we thought of him as someone being
punished and struck with affliction by God” (Is 53:4).
The poor man died…We are
not surprised that Lazarus died since the earth seemed not be home for him. It
is obvious he was not living in fear of death. There was no forma burial for
him. But then we are amazed at his new state of life. Angels attended to him
whom the rich man ignored. He was given a place at Abraham’s bosom. “And Mary
said...He has pulled down princes from their thrones and raised high the lowly.
He has filled the starving with good things, sent the rich away empty” (Lk
1:52-53)
The rich man also died and was
buried...Death is the leveler.
But to the rich, it came as a destroyer. It appears there was ceremonial
burial for him. It should be so since that marked the end of his reign. Unknown to him death ushered the real beginning
of life. Now there is reversal of fortune.
The fire of hell has exposed him.
We never knew the rich man could beg for anything! Then, why did he neglect the
beggar! And he kept on begging...even for something less that the scraps
Lazarus begged for: a drop of water! The standard he set on earth has caught up
with him. And the barrier he built against the cry of the poor has developed
into a great chasm, impossible to cross. He has so many regrets, including his
father’s house.
But Abraham said, they have Moses
and the Prophets...The law and word is now fulfilled and poured into
our hearts through Jesus, who narrates this touchy parable. Truly, if the
Spirit of God dwelling in us cannot rouse us to action to discover God’s will,
especially in the preferential option for the poor, nothing else will. We have
no other way to God than that which He has given to us; Jesus.
Therefore, St Paul urges us in
the second reading to aim at righteousness, godliness, faith, love
steadfastness, gentleness. If we direct our lives in this direction, we will
hear the pain of suffering humanity, and take
hold of eternal life to which you were called...
Fr Jude Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
Mother of Perpetual Shrine,
Ugwogo-Nike, Enugu.
25 September, 2016.
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