REFLECTION FOR THE 26TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR C
The readings of this week build on those of last week. Who is the God we adore? Do we adore the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Lazarus the beggar? Or, do we adore the god of wealth and greed, or Mammon, the name Jesus gave the god last week? Who we adore will be evidenced in the way we love our neighbor.
This week we are presented with a very familiar parable of Jesus from the Gospel of Luke. It is the parable of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus. The story compares the rich man who ate well, dressed well, and had all the luxuries that life offers. Outside the door was the beggar, Lazarus, covered in sores and starving to death. Jesus points out in the story that the rich man’s dogs ate better than the beggar outside his door. For his part, the rich man had no compassion for Lazarus, nor aided the beggar in any way. The one thing in which the rich man and Lazarus shared was they died at the same time. Lazarus went to heaven, and the rich man to Hell. Though Lazarus wanted to alleviate the suffering of the rich man, he was prevented from doing so by the great divide between heaven and hell. The rich man pleaded with Abraham to forewarn his family to live better lives than he, lest they, too, be as tormented for eternity as he. Abraham responds, “If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.”
It is presumed in the parable that the rich man fulfilled all the ritual demands of his Judaism. He observed the outward sign of his religion by going to synagogue on the Sabbath, honoring the rituals and food laws of his religion. All this did not spare him from eternal damnation because he did not love and care for his neighbor. As we examine our own lives, are we guilty of the same. We come to Mass on Sunday, we pray our prayers. To the outside observer we demonstrate our Catholicism. However, if we ignore the needs of the poor and those most in need, we will find ourselves in the same unpleasant place as the rich man in the parable.
Our worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is only validated in the way we serve and love our neighbor. Jesus makes this very clear in the Great Commandment. But it is also something that is emphasized by the Paul and James.
In his first letter to the Corinthians (11:17-22), Paul condemns the Corinthian community for the sin of the rich man in the parable for today. They are ignoring the needs of the poor within their own community. “In giving this instruction, I do not praise the fact that your meetings are doing more harm than good. First of all, I hear that when you meet as a church there are divisions among you, and to a degree I believe it; there have to be factions among you in order that (also) those who are approved among you may become known. When you meet in one place, then, it is not to eat the Lord’s supper, for in eating, each one goes ahead with his own supper, and one goes hungry while another gets drunk. Do you not have houses in which you can eat and drink? Or do you show contempt for the church of God and make those who have nothing feel ashamed? What can I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this matter I do not praise you.” Paul continues that this behavior robs the words of consecration of their validity. Those guilty of this eat and drink their own damnation.
James emphasizes this all the more in his letter. He writes (2:1-8), “My brothers, show no partiality as you adhere to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. For if a man with gold rings on his fingers and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and a poor person in shabby clothes also comes in, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Sit here, please,” while you say to the poor one, “Stand there,” or “Sit at my feet,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil designs? Listen, my beloved brothers. Did not God choose those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him? But you dishonored the poor person … However, if you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.”
James warns his community to not follow the example of the rich man in the parable. (James 5:1-5) “Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries. Your wealth has rotted away, your clothes have become moth-eaten, your gold and silver have corroded, and that corrosion will be a testimony against you; it will devour your flesh like a fire. You have stored up treasure for the last days. Behold, the wages you withheld from the workers who harvested your fields are crying aloud, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on earth in luxury and pleasure; you have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter.”
Then James tells the community that if they truly believe, their faith will be proven in the way they minister to those in need, their neighbor. “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Indeed someone may say, “You have faith and I have works.” Demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works.” (James 2:14-18)
Last but not least, Mary, the Mother of Jesus, speaks the same message in her great Canticle of praise, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior. For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is from age to age to those who fear him. He has shown might with his arm, dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart. He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly. The hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped Israel his servant, remembering his mercy, according to his promise to our fathers, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.” (Luke 1:46-55)
This message of Jesus, the prophets, the apostles, Paul and James, are pertinent to those of us who call ourselves disciples of Jesus. This is especially so when the message that is preached by our culture and some of our politicians is one in which the individual self is glorified to the detriment of the poor in our nation and on our borders. It is not enough to just say our prayers and go to Mass on Sunday. To say we worship God and ignore the needs of the poor, then, as James states clearly, our faith is dead and worthless. Our faith and our works must match, otherwise we are nothing more than a “noisy gong and a clashing cymbal”. (1 Cor. 1:13).
Is the religion in which we believe all words and no works? If it is, then we may suffer the same fate as the rich man in the parable today. To paraphrase the words of Abraham to the rich man at the end of the parable; if we will not listen to Moses and the prophets, and, I might add, Jesus, Paul, and James, then neither will we be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead. We have been forewarned.
