26th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Fr. Simham)

Find out who is Lazarus at the gate

The first question that comes to my mind after reading this gospel and even the first reading is “Is it a sin to be rich? Why Prophet Amos and Jesus are so much against the rich?”  Look at the way the rich are condemned? It looks for me as if being rich; wearing good clothes, sleeping on a good couch and eating good meals, celebrating life with your friends is wrong and you are well on your way to perdition. And in contrast, being poor without proper clothes and being sick with sores all over your body is a blessing. You will be greatly rewarded later. Is this Christianity all about? What wrong did the rich man do to go to such a place of torments and what good did Lazar do to sit in the bosom of the Abraham? Why is this great reversal of fortunes?

Friends, do you know that in Christian tradition there is a type of sin called “sin of omission.” And it is as bad as sin of commission. What is this sin of omission? It is the refusal to do the good which you are supposed to do. It is the unwillingness to be as loving as your ‘Heavenly Father’ is when you are presented with the opportunity. That was the problem with the rich man in the parable. He knew Lazarus the poor man was there at his door step and he is in need of his help. And he also had plenty to give away. He had plenty of time, he had plenty of money and he had plenty of food. But he never cared for the needy. We are not told that the rich man actually broke any of the commandments or did anything particularly wrong. No, his sin was simply not noticing the poor man at his gate.

I always believe that following the Ten Commandments especially with regard to the commandments towards the neighbour is very easy. All these commands say “do not do this or do not do that.” It is easy to avoid doing wrong out of fear or lack of strength. E.g.: It is not so easy to commit a murder, even other things. You need lot of courage and strength which all of us may not have. Surely I don’t have the courage. So for me following the Ten Commandments or avoiding the sin of commission is easy. But the judgement will be depending not so much on what you have avoided but on what you have done. I was hungry you fed me, naked you clothed me, sick you came to see me. Mt.25/34ff.

So the rich man was condemned not for what he did but for what he failed to do. He did not pay attention to the man in need; he failed to take notice of Lazarus, the person who sat at his door and who longed to eat the scraps from his table. Nowhere does Jesus condemn the mere possession of earthly goods as such. Instead, He pronounces very harsh words against those who use their possessions in a selfish way, without paying attention to the needs of others. This is a bit worrying. To be condemned for not noticing or simply forgetting doesn’t sound very fair.

But perhaps this is an important lesson for us. Jesus frequently talks about spiritual blindness and hypocrisy, but here he is reminding us that there is another more obvious kind of blindness, namely blindness to the situation of the people around us.

There were many nuns walking in the streets of Calcutta. But only Mother Theresa had the eyes to see the plight of the destitute and dying the on the pavements of Calcutta. And noticing the poor man at the gate is only the first step. Once we have noticed him/her we have to do something about him/her; we have to react; we have to enter into a relationship with him/her. This is what she did. She left her rich Loreto convent to be with the poor.

Often we think of how to increase our fortune but through today’s gospel Jesus says, “Think of the unfortunate people around you. In fact the unfortunate around you are your good fortune to go to heaven.” The vital question we need to ask ourselves today and every day is “Who is my Lazarus at the gate?” Have I missed him today? Our Lazarus at the gate may be a household worker whose difficulties we get to know about because we are in such close contact with him or her. Our Lazarus at the gate may a poor family, down our street which is struggling to make ends meet. Our Lazarus at the gate may be the lonely, the aged, the sick and the housebound who long for a visit or are eager to have our services in things we can do for them easily.

Find out your Lazarus at the gate every day and do something for him or her, because he/she is your great treasure. Amen.

Fr. Showreelu Simham