Gospel and reflection 25.9.2022
25th September 2022
Gospel
Luke 16:19-31
Jesus said to the Pharisees: ‘There was a rich man who used to dress in purple and fine linen and feast magnificently every day. And at his gate there lay a poor man called Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to fill himself with the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even came and licked his sores. Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried.
‘In his torment in Hades he looked up and saw Abraham a long way off with Lazarus in his bosom. So he cried out, “Father Abraham, pity me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these flames.” “My son,” Abraham replied “remember that during your life good things came your way, just as bad things came the way of Lazarus. Now he is being comforted here while you are in agony. But that is not all: between us and you a great gulf has been fixed, to stop anyone, if he wanted to, crossing from our side to yours, and to stop any crossing from your side to ours.”
‘The rich man replied, “Father, I beg you then to send Lazarus to my father’s house, since I have five brothers, to give them warning so that they do not come to this place of torment too.” “They have Moses and the prophets,” said Abraham “let them listen to them.” “Ah no, father Abraham,” said the rich man “but if someone comes to them from the dead, they will repent.” Then Abraham said to him, “If they will not listen either to Moses or to the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead.”’
Reflection
If we are fortunate, we have some food to eat each day. Most of us eat simply enough. We have something for breakfast, for lunch and for dinner in the evening, or, if you are of an older generation, we have something for breakfast, for dinner and for tea in the evening. It is only very occasionally that we would have a very elaborate meal, with four or five courses. We might have such a meal at a wedding reception, or at some other equally important celebration. At elaborate meal is something special, a treat. Most of us couldn’t afford to have such a meal every day. Indeed, there are many for whom even three simple meals a day is a luxury. Some are fortunate to have one simple meal a day.
In the parable Jesus told, a rich man used to feast magnificently every day. He had the equivalent of a five course meal on a daily basis. In the time of Jesus, only a very tiny, proportion of the population could afford to eat like that. Most of Jesus’ contemporaries would have considered that level of self-indulgence to be disgusting. We would probably think so ourselves today. This man was so wealthy that what he ate at one meal was more than what most people would have eaten in a month. Most people at the time would have been fortunate to eat one simple meal a day. There were also many who were constantly hungry and had could not find the basic minimum of food to remain reasonably healthy. One such person appears in the parable. He has a name, Lazarus. Perhaps some considerate people left him at the gate of the rich man’s house in the hope that the rich man would give him something from his huge reserves of food. We are told that what Lazarus was looking for from this extremely wealthy man was very modest, some of the scraps that fell from his table. Even those scraps would have helped to ease the pains of hunger. The wealthy man could easily have sent one of his servants out with a bag of scraps to Lazarus. Yet, he didn’t even do that much. Lazarus was simply invisible to him. It was as if Lazarus didn’t exist as far as the rich man was concerned.
The great sin of the rich man was his total, unfeeling, indifference, his complete lack of any sensitivity towards Lazarus. He just didn’t notice Lazarus. Yet in the parable God notices Lazarus. When Lazarus died, he was taken by God to the banquet of eternal life, with a place of honour beside Abraham. In contrast, the rich man was taken to a place where he could not even get a cup of cold water. In this life, the rich man had kept Lazarus at a distance, and, now, in eternity, he was kept at a distance from Lazarus and from the banquet of life at which Lazarus was an honoured guest. God transformed Lazarus’ plight after his death, but Jesus is saying in this parable that God really wanted Lazarus’ plight to be transformed before his death. The very wealthy man had the resources to transform Lazarus’ wretched state, and he did nothing. He failed to do God’s will, to listen to what God was asking him to do, speaking through the Jewish Law and the prophets, prophets like Amos in the first reading. Lazarus could have enjoyed something of the banquet of eternal life during his earthly life, if the wealthy man had done even the very little that Lazarus was asking for.
Jesus is reminding all of us in this parable that we can all make a difference for the better to the lives of others, or even just to the life of one person. None of us are wealthy in the way the rich man in the parable was. Many of us may be struggling financially in these very difficult times, with soaring prices, rising fuel costs and growing inflation. Yet, we can all do something, no matter how small, for someone who is worse off than we are. On one occasion, Jesus declared that whoever gives even a cup of cold water to someone who needs it will not lose their reward. It is not always the size of what we can give that matters so much as the spirit in which it is given. What Lazarus needed above all was some recognition that he existed, that he wasn’t just invisible. He needed sensitivity, consideration, and for that to be expressed in some practical way. Even more important than what we give to others is our capacity to notice them, to show sensitivity to them, to be attentive to them. God was calling out to the rich man through Lazarus, and the Lord continues to call out to us through those who are struggling to survive. To notice them is to notice the Lord himself. Whenever we respond to others with the sensitivity that Jesus so often showed in his ministry, we are bringing something of the kingdom of heaven to earth. The Lord wants something of the banquet of eternal life to be a reality here and now and he needs each one of us to help him to bring this about.