Word to the Wise
Sunday, September 25, 2016 - 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time - C
[Amos 6:1a, 4-7; 1 Tim 6:11-16; Luke 16:19-31]"There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man's table....." [Luke]
I once heard a bishop tell about his arrival to become bishop in a particular city. He noticed that food assistance for the poor and the transients at the cathedral rectory downtown was being conducted at the back of the rectory. He said that he had that assistance brought to the front of the rectory. He concluded his account by saying, "No one wants to see the faces of the poor!" The parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus in today's gospel scripture reminds me of that bishop's story. Notice that Jesus does not give the Rich Man a name (tradition supplied "Divus," which means "rich"), but does give the poor man a name: Lazarus. Lazarus was invisible to Divus, but is very visible to us who read this parable.
The Rich Man simply does not "see" Lazarus. He (Divus) is wrapped up in his own world of purple garments and sumptuous dining. He lives in a place that is "gated" in many ways: physically and virtually. He has effectively shielded himself from people like Lazarus. In doing so, he violated the general expectation of Jesus' time that the Rich had an obligation to share their wealth with the poor, to give alms. In doing so, he created a "chasm" not only between himself and Lazarus but between himself and God! The words of Father Abraham are chilling: "Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours."
The parable challenges us to look and see if we can actually "see" the faces of the poor, and also determine if there is a chasm between us and them. This is a chasm that we can narrow or even eliminate. The one at the end of life is permanent. Although the gap between "haves" and "have nots" is fodder for politics, especially in this election year, it is also, as a matter of faith and action, "food for thought and action." Lazarus and Father Abraham are watching. AMEN
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