Loving your neighbor - Homily 26th Sunday Ordinary Time, cycle C

In today’s Gospel we hear a vivid story about a rich man and Lazarus.  Jesus addresses this story to the Pharisees. He does this to challenge them.  The Pharisees were the leaders of the Jewish faith community, but they didn’t always live the faith.  They were more interested in the recognition of their position, wearing fine clothing, and being taken care of, than loving God and neighbor. Jesus’ story was to make them feel a bit uncomfortable.

We hear about a rich man who was dressed in purple fine linen clothe and eating sumptuously each day.   It’s ok to eat a really good meal for holidays and celebrations, but he was doing every day. He was living a life of excess with no concern for others, especially Lazarus.       

Meanwhile, we hear of Lazarus lying at the rich man’s door, covered in sores, who longed for the scraps that fell from rich man’s table. In order to get in and out of the house, the rich man, would probably need to step over Lazarus. You would think he’d notice him with the dogs licking his sores, but we don’t hear a word of this.  When I read this I thought that dogs licking sores was a bad thing, but I was told that dogs will lick wounds to help with healing.    It would seem that animals show more care for Lazarus than the rich man did.  He is absorbed in his life of luxury and has no concern for the poor.    

One thing interesting to note, we know the name of the poor suffering man as Lazarus, but does anyone recall the name of the rich man?   It’s never mentioned.  He remains nameless.  In the world today, if your wealthy or famous it seems like everyone knows their name.   But for the poor, it’s not the case.    They seem to remain nameless, as they’re not seen important to people of this world.  In referring to Lazarus by name, Jesus is showing us God’s favor for the poor.     

Both the rich man and Lazarus eventually die.  The tables seam to turn in the afterlife for the rich man.   He is in torment, while Lazarus is seen at the side of Abraham in comfort.  This is a sign of Lazarus being in heaven, with the rich man suffering in hell. 

While the rich man is now in eternal suffering, he still doesn’t seem to get it. He calls to Abraham to send Lazarus to relieve his thirst.   The rich man never did a thing for Lazarus in his earthly life, but he expects to be served by him in the afterlife.  Abraham responds he’ll have to endure torment, while Lazarus is comforted.   The divide between the place of torment and comfort is too wide to cross for the rich man to escape the suffering. The rich man has sealed his fate. 

The rich man seems to be a bit remorseful and appeals for Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his family. Abraham responds that they’ve already had plenty of warning from Moses & the prophets, and the even someone rising from the dead wouldn’t make a difference to them.   This is prelude of Jesus’ own death, and resurrection, and the refusal by many people to change their ways and believe in him.

This story probably made the Pharisees feel a bit uncomfortable and was a warning for them to change their ways.  They appeared to be practicing their faith, worshipping in the temple.  But their focus take care of themselves while ignoring the poor had some dire consequences.   They could end up like the rich man did. 

This story can make us a little uncomfortable as well.  Many of us have been blessed with the things that we need to live a comfortable life.   We don’t lack food, shelter, and healthcare like Lazarus did.  We’re here today worshiping together to show our love for God and Jesus calls us also to remember to love for our neighbor.  

Fortunately, we are blessed to have many opportunities to do so.  With our Outreach ministries of the food pantry, Gabriel project, back to school backpack drive, Thanksgiving food distribution and many others, we have numerous opportunities do show love for neighbor as well.  I’m sure there are many other ways that each of us shows our love of neighbor as well.  

If this has been missing in your faith life, I’d like to share something I talked about at Johnson County Jail on Friday.  I shared with the inmates that helping materially poor may be difficult in their situation, but they could help those who are starving for love.   There’s some people who have never really been shown much love, kindness, or respect in their lives. I suggested they could show the love of neighbor by offering a smile, a kind word, or friendship to one of the other inmates who seemed to need it.    That’s a good place for us to start as well where we spend our time, at work, school, shopping, or recreating.

As we continue with this Mass and receive the Eucharist, thank God for the gifts we’ve be been blessed with, and to be inspired to share some of these with our neighbors.  Pray for the grace of the Holy Spirit on how best to do this.  By doing so we’ll have the hope of being in the comfort of Abraham along with Lazarus and our Lord Jesus.