A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (# 44)
26th Sunday in Ordinary Time – September 26, 2004
“The Rich Man and Lazarus”
BIBLE READINGS
Amos 6:1, 4-7 / I Tim 6:11-16 // Lk 16:19-31
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS
I love to read the “Missioner Tales” in Maryknoll, the magazine of the Mayknoll missionaries. The July-August 2004 issue contains an experience shared by Catherine Erisman, a Maryknoll sister. Her story, which illustrates the compassionate attitude totally lacking in the Rich Man mentioned in this Sunday’s Gospel parable, contains the hope that the pathetic Joseph, too poor to buy toothpaste, will have a better lot in heaven.
I was making pastoral rounds at Bugando Hospital in Mwanza, Tanzania, when a patient held my hand and made a request. Joseph, emaciated by AIDS, asked: “Could you please bring me some toothpaste?” Supplies like that are not available in the hospital, so I brought him a tube I bought at the local store. When I stopped in to visit him the following day, I was told that Joseph had died. I picture him standing before God with a stunning smile.
The parable of “The Rich Man and Lazarus” is to be seen against the backdrop of Jesus’ desire to teach his disciples the right use of money. The Pharisees, however, reacted negatively to his teaching on material wealth: “The Pharisees, who loved money, heard of all this and laughed at him” (Lk 16:9). Through this parable of the reversal of fortune of the rich man and Lazarus, the Divine Master was reinforcing his teaching that wealth must be rightly used to give solace to the poor.
According to the biblical scholar, Jerome Kodell: “The rich man was oblivious to the needs of the beggar at his gate. He did not realize the seriousness of the present opportunity in preparing for the eternal future. It was not his wealth that kept him from Abraham’s bosom, but his untrustworthy stewardship.” Carroll Stuhlmueller concurs: “Because every Jewish landowner was Yahweh’s tenant (Lv 25:23), he owed taxes to Yahweh’s representatives, the poor, and was thus expected to share the land with them in the form of alms … The rich man’s sin consisted in his blind indifference to the agony of the poor.”
The Church Father, St. John Chrysostom (c.347-407), gleans a beautiful insight from the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. In his Homily on Lazarus, he remarks: “It is worthwhile inquiring why the rich man saw Lazarus in Abraham’s arms, and not in the company of some other righteous person. The reason is that Abraham was hospitable, and so the sight of Lazarus with Abraham was meant to reproach the rich man for his own inhospitality … The rich man disregarded someone lying in his own doorway. Although he had within his grasp so great a treasure, such an opportunity to win salvation, he ignored the poor man day after day. He could have helped him but he failed to do so … Indeed, throughout the gospel Christ speaks a great deal about the little people and those of the humblest condition … Anyone wishing to show kindness … has only to alleviate their poverty and supply their needs.”
The biblical scholar, Robert Karris sees the challenge in this parable for all the readers of Luke’s Gospel. He explains: “This is a two-tiered (verses 19-26, 27-31) example story which focuses on the rich man, his five brothers, and his readers. It asks: Will the five brothers and readers follow the example of the rich man or heed Jesus’ teaching and that of the Old Testament about care of the needy like Lazarus and thus be children of Abraham? If the five brothers and the readers do not follow that teaching, they will not have a place at the messianic banquet … Mere words do not make one a child of Abraham and therefore a member of reconstituted Israel.”
This Sunday’s proclamation of the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus is an indictment against the rich of today who do not care for the poor and whose callousness to the world’s afflictions is such that it can not be penetrated even “if someone should rise from the dead” (Lk 16:31). Although this parable is a call to conversion, it also underlines the definitive character of divine judgment. The German theologian, Helmut Thielicke writes: “The mercy of God is boundless, yes, but it is not offered indefinitely. Here we are still living by the grace of God and the merit of Christ; the sentence is still punctuated with a colon. We still have a reprieve, a season of grace; we still have time to live and turn back home. But one day comes – finality, period. And then even Lazarus will not be able to come to us, and Father Abraham will not be able to send him to add one extenuating phrase or happy ending to this full stop. Lazarus once waited for the crumb of bread from the rich man’s table; now the rich man waits for the drop at the end of Lazarus’ finger. But the hour of visitation, the hour of waiting, expectant mercy of God has run out. The ‘acceptable time’, the kairos, is past. Now there is only the yawning chasm that none can pass over.”
The final destiny of the saved and the lost in the afterlife is unalterable. In the afterlife a reversal of fortune will take place. Those who were poor and destitute will be comforted. The chilling words of condemnation, however, will haunt the selfish and callous of heart – they who have been blind and deaf to the needs and agonizing cries of the poor: “My child, remember that you have received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here; whereas you are tormented” (Lk 16:31).
The parable of the rich man and Lazarus is an urgent invitation to conversion now … lest it be too late! It is an appeal to relieve the plight of the poor now … lest we be condemned eternally for our apathy and indifference to their agony.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
A. What is our attitude to the poor man – Lazarus, who lies at our doorstep? Do we care at all; or are we indifferent to his needs and agony?
B. Do we believe that God hears the cry of the poor and will comfort them? How do we incarnate in our daily life the Father’s loving compassion for them?
C. If we are playing today the part of the callous and selfish rich man, are we willing to receive the grace of conversion and be transformed into the image of God’s compassion for the poor and destitute? Are we willing to embrace the hapless Lazarus of today and bring him close to our bosom?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: Loving Father,
look with kindness upon the Lazarus at our doorstep.
Give us the grace to listen to the cry of the poor
and attend to their needs.
Do not let us be callous to their agony and torment.
Shatter the hard shell of our apathy and indifference.
May we stop playing the role of the Rich Man,
who is outrageously apathetic to the sufferings around him.
We beg you to challenge us everyday
with the power of the Gospel indictment:
“My child, remember that you have received
what was good during your lifetime
while Lazarus likewise received what was bad;
but now he is comforted here;
whereas you are tormented”.
Please enfold us with the strength of your compassion
that we may be impelled
to cradle the poor Lazarus of today in our bosom.
We ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who though rich, became poor,
so that by his poverty we might become rich,
forever and ever.
Assembly: Amen.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“My child, remember that you have received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here; whereas you are tormented” (Lk 16:31)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
A. ACTION PLAN: Read the Gospel parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Lk 16:19-31) slowly and meditatively. Using the power of imagination, enter into the life-situation of Lazarus, after which, you may pray for the poor Lazarus of today. In the same way, enter into the life-situation of the Rich Man and be sorry for the sins of apathy in today’s world. Pray for the conversion of heart of all those who are callous to the plight of the poor.
B. ACTION PLAN: FOOD FOR THE POOR is an interdenominational Christian ministry created to help the poorest poor in the Caribbean and Latin America. Pray for their ministry and if you wish to participate in their works of charity, send any help you can to the following:
FOOD FOR THE POOR, INC.
550 SW 12th Avenue,
Deerfield Beach, FL 33442, USA.
Tel. (954) 427-2222
Website: www.foodforthepoor.org
Prepared by Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang PDDM
SISTER DISCIPLES OF THE DIVINE MASTER
60 Sunset Ave., Staten Island, NY 10314
Tel. (718) 494-8597 // (718) 761-2323
Website: WWW.PDDM.US