Sunday, September 25
Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
“Praise the Lord, my soul!”
Reflection
This Sunday we get a glimpse of how our faith can lead us to serve God through serving those around us, and how a lack of faith can lead us to ignore those around us, bringing us a future that is not so pleasant. The reading from Amos describes a people who spend all of their time seeking to satisfy their appetites for luxurious food and comfortable living. They ignore those who have nothing, and are not troubled in any way by the conditions that prevail for the poor. The Gospel describes a similar situation with a rich man feasting on sumptuous food each day while a poor and destitute man named Lazarus lies at his gate slowly dying because of a lack of food and care.
While Amos only describes the situation on earth, Luke’s gospel takes the story a step further as he describes Jesus’ parable. Both the rich man and Lazarus have passed from this life and are now experiencing the future in eternity that they have carved out in their time on earth. We see Lazarus being comforted by Abraham, one of the patriarchs of our faith while the rich man is in the torment of flames and heat in hell. The rich man has a conversation with Abraham about how he can change his situation, if only to have Lazarus come and cool his tongue with water from heaven. But what Abraham tells him is that it is now too late for him to change his lot. He goes further to say that he should have listened to the testimony of prophets like Amos and changed his ways before his passing took place. The rich man asks Abraham if he could go and warn his brothers about his fate, and is told that they too have Moses and the prophets to learn from.
We too can learn from Moses, the prophets and from what Jesus has to tell us. If we know someone who needs to be saved from hunger and destitution, we ought to do what we can to help them.
If we have more than we need to live on, we can direct this bounty to those who do not have enough. In doing so, we can avoid the fate of the rich man, and reap the benefits of eternal life in Christ. As always, the choice is ours to make.
Peace,
Deacon Dare
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