TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

25 SEPTEMBER 2022

 

          This is the only parable in which Jesus names someone: Lazarus, which means “God helps.”  But, could there be a person less “helped” than this beggar?  He sits outside the gate of a rich man’s house, hoping for the scraps thrown away after the rich man’s meal.  In the ancient world, diners do not use napkins.  Instead, they wipe their faces and hands with pieces of cheap bread.  Lazarus does not even get a napkin.  In addition to being hungry, he is covered with sores.  Dogs come to lick his sores. These are gentle house pets who come to comfort him.  Dogs are scavengers on four legs, and they circle over his body as he loses strength.  They are waiting to finish him off for good.  The rich man has a proper funeral when he dies.  There is no funeral for Lazarus.  The implication is that the dogs offer his body a final indignity.

            The truth is that God does help this poor beggar.  He has given the rich man more than he can ever need.  But the rich man ignores Lazarus and neglects to share anything with him, even the napkins.  Now in eternity, the gate continues to separate him and the beggar.  Their roles are reversed.  Saint John Chrysostom puts these words in the mouth of father Abraham: “When you were living in your wealth, when you were free to see at your own will, you did not choose to see him.  Why do you have such keen sight now?  Was he not at your gate?  How could you avoid seeing him?  When he was near you did not see him; and now do you see him from a distance, even across such a chasm? … The man whom you passed by a thousand times, whom you did not want to see – now do you seek to have him sent to you for your salvation?’  The rich man had not listened to the Scriptures about God’s love for the poor.  He remains unrepentant and wants to order Lazarus around.  His brothers have the same Scriptures.

            We have those same scriptures that speak of God’s love for the poor.  We also have the one who humbled himself to become poor and has risen from the dead.  He speaks to us today through the Gospel of Saint Luke.  He tells us, his disciples, about the place of wealth in our lives.  He does not condemn wealth in today’s parable.  Wealth is a blessing from God.  But he makes it very clear that we cannot hoard our wealth and use it to enrich ourselves only.  We must be mindful of the poor and the needs of others.  We must recognize Lazarus lying at our gate.

            The problem in this age of mass communication is that we see Lazarus every day.  We can be overwhelmed by the needs of the poor and feel that we cannot make a difference.  That is why our Saint Vincent de Paul Society uses the food we bring each month to distribute to those who need it.  They invest the funds we donate to reach out to Lazarus in our day.  That is why our parish tithes 5% of our income to Saint Adalbert and sets aside another 3 ½ % for those who ask our help.  That is why we are mindful of Fr. Larry’s Parish in Uganda and will respond to Father’s Arthur’s plea for help for his work in Uganda next month.  That is why so many of you have chosen your own special charities so that God can help through you.

            Saint John Chrysostom puts our wealth into perspective.  Father Abraham asks the rich man: “And where are your cup bearers?  Where are your flatterers?  Where is your vanity?  Where is your presumption?  Where is your buried gold?  Where are your moth-eaten garments?  Where is the silver which you valued so highly?  Where are your ostentations and your luxury?  They were leaves – winter seized them, and they were all withered up.  They were a dream – and when day came, the dream departed.  They were a shadow – the truth came, and the shadow fled away.”  Saint John Chrysostom challenges us to invest our wealth wisely.  He reminds us that we need to recognize the needs of others and share our blessings with them.  We cannot take our wealth with us when we die.  Our kindness to the poor lives on forever.

 

TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

18 SEPTEMBER 2022

 

          All of the parables of Jesus have surprises and unexpected turns to get our attention.  However, today’s parable not only gets our attention.  It baffles us!  Is Jesus encouraging us to be dishonest?  Is he telling us that it is acceptable to cheat our employers?

            No, he is not.  If we understand the historical context of this parable, it makes more sense.  The rich man more than likely pays barely subsistence wages to peasants, slavers, and sharecroppers to do the hard work.  They resent his lavish lifestyle living in poverty. His steward is in charge of the daily operation and probably keeps a bit of the produce here and there for himself.  When the rich man returns from a journey, he discovers the actions of his steward and demands an accounting.  The steward is very shrewd and reduces the debts owed to his master.  When the rich man returns, the debtors do not welcome him with resentment.  They are glad to see him and are grateful for the breaks they have received.  The rich man commends the steward for his practical wisdom.

            Jesus addresses this parable to us.  It helps us understand how disciples should handle wealth.  God is the rich man in the parable who does not throw the dishonest steward in jail.  Instead, God gives mercy.  The parable reminds us that everything we have is a gift from God.  We are stewards of those gifts.  We need to use them not just to enrich ourselves, but to focus on what is most important – the gift of salvation offered by the Lord to us.

            It is in this spirit that Bishop Rhoades asks us to consider giving a portion of our sacrificial gift to the Annual Bishop’s Appeal.  Our gifts to the Appeal help to provide services to many who are in need in our Diocese.  They support our ministries as a parish.  Please give your attention to the Appeal Video, to allow Bishop Rhoades to speak for himself. 

  

 

TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

11 SEPTEMBER 2022

 

          As Moses communes with God on Mount Sinai for forty days and nights, the Israelites have become anxious and worried.  Has God forgotten us?  Has Moses abandoned us?  Are we stuck in this Sinai wilderness to never reach the Promised Land?  In response, the people give their jewelry to Aaron, who fashions a golden calf in the divine image.  In the apparent absence of God, they can see and touch and worship.  God sees this as infidelity and becomes angry.

            The Book of Exodus gives us an insight into the remarkable relationship between God and Moses.  God offers to allow his wrath to blaze up and consume them.  Then, God will make of Moses a great nation.  However, Moses has the courage to remind God of his promise to their ancestors.  “Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and how you swore to them by your own self….”  Moses becomes a mediator for his people.  He tells the Lord, “You would look pretty silly going back on your promises.” In using the word “remember,” he is appealing to God’s very nature.  God has not forgotten them.  On their part, the Israelites need to remember who God is and who they are.  They need God, even when God seems distant to them.

            In our journey to the new and eternal Jerusalem, we can find ourselves in a wilderness.  When life gets difficult, we do not pitch in all our jewelry to fashion a calf.  Like the ancient Israelites, we want real assurances that God has not forgotten us.  We want something tangible, something we can see or touch, when we are weary or disillusioned.  We want our leaders to be nearby to lead us, and not up on some mountain communing with God.  There are times when we want God to intervene directly to get us through whatever wilderness in which we find ourselves.

            That is why Jesus tells these three parables.  The Lord wants us to remember that he seeks us out when we are lost, like the shepherd who goes after the lost sheep, or like the woman who searches diligently for the lost coin, or like the father who never gives up on a son who had considered him dead.  While we may sometimes feel that we are alone in a particular wilderness, the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin remind us that the Lord is always near and always remembers us, even when we feel abandoned.  Like the son in the third parable, we sometimes make some very bad choices and wander away from our Father who loves us and from others who care about us.  We often call this the “parable of the prodigal son.”  The son is prodigal, in the sense that he makes outrageous demands of his father, considering him dead.  But it is the father who is also prodigal, because he makes the outrageous choice to give his son what is not his.  He is outrageous in his desire to watch for his son’s return.  He is outrageous when his son comes to his senses and then receives him back fully as his son.  

            Jesus addresses these parables to the Pharisees and scribes, who have been critical of his practice of welcoming sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes and eating with them.  He addresses these parables to us, especially when we think that the Lord has not remembered us.  He wants to share his joy when we who are lost have been found.  As a confessor, I am humbled when I become an instrument of the Father’s prodigal mercy in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and when I give the Apostolic Pardon to a dying person who has been away from the Church for a long time.  Jesus continues to eat with us sinners at this Eucharist.  No matter how lost we may be, or how much we might have thought that he has not remembered us, he seeks us out to share his great joy when he finds us.

 

TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

4 SEPTEMBER 2022

 

          Jesus continues his journey to Jerusalem.  On the way, he has been announcing that the Kingdom of God has arrived.  He is the promised Messiah.  He invites everyone to respond and follow him.  He offers a special invitation to the poor the crippled, the lame, and the blind.  These people may be on the fringes of society.  But they are first in the kingdom of God.  The great crowds who are traveling with him have taken that first step.

            Today, he tells those great crowds that they need to take the next step.  If they are to become authentic disciples, they must consider the implications of their choice.  They must put Jesus first, even before family members.  The Greek text uses the word “hate” not to tell people how to feel about their family members, but to love them less than loving Jesus.  Knowing that his journey will end by dying on the cross in Jerusalem, Jesus insists that they carry their crosses.  Finally, he tells authentic disciples to renounce their possessions.

            Philomen became a disciple of Jesus Christ when he and his family were baptized in Ephesus.  In his letter to Philomen, Saint Paul challenges him to take these same three steps as an authentic disciple.  Philomen has a slave, Onesimus.  The slave had run away from the family and had sought refuge with Paul, who is in prison.  Paul had welcomed him and found him useful.  In fact, that is exactly what the slave’s name means.  Paul had baptized him.   No matter how useful Onesimus may have been to Paul, the Apostle knows by law that the slave belongs as property to his master.  So, he sends Onesimus back to Philomen, reminding him that his status has radically changed.  He is no longer just a slave.  He is a baptized brother in the Lord Jesus.

            In the first century, Onesimus is a valuable financial asset to the family.  Paul tells Philomen that his discipleship puts the Lord Jesus ahead of the needs of the family.  Paul is aware that Philomen and his family will bear a heavy cross if they welcome Onesimus back as a brother in the Lord, instead of a slave who takes care of so many family details.  Paul invites Philomen to renounce Onesimus as one of his possessions.

            We have no idea how Philomen responded to Paul’s letter.  Maybe he recognized the new dignity of his slave as a brother in Christ and welcomed him back.  Maybe he punished him severely and put heavier burdens on him for running away. 

            However, we can listen to Paul’s words and ask ourselves about the quality of our discipleship.  Do we put Jesus ahead of all our relationships, even spouses and children?  Paradoxically, those bonds can be strengthened if we have the faith to put Jesus first.  Are we willing to carry the crosses that come to us, especially those crosses we endure in living our faith?  Do we express gratitude for the many material blessings God has given us and share a portion of them with the poor?  Or do we hoard them, thinking that they will save us?

            Jesus invites us today to reflect on the quality of our discipleship.  His demands can be frightening.  But they also have the power to free us.  Saint Paul challenges us, as he challenged Philomen, to see Christ in everyone.  In the 18^th and 19^th centuries, people from Africa were brought to the new world against their wills and forced to be slaves.  Christians who owned slaves saw them as less than human.  Slavery may have ended with the 13^th amendment.  But the temptation to regard people of other races or people who different from us as less than human remains.  In our polarized society, we are tempted to regard those who disagree with us in the same way.  As faithful disciples, we are called to treat people of all races and those who live on the fringes of society with dignity and respect.