+ Today we have amazingly serendipitous and applicable readings
for mass. The backdrop of these readings is what consumes the minds and lives of
not only Christian people in this country of ours, but all people of whatever
religious or non-religious persuasion that is out there: and that is the
exhausting daily shifting and quite apparently destabilizing of our nation’s
security both among us citizens ourselves and also as how we relate to other
nations in the world. It seems that we are being set up for a great and
cataclysmic downfall – that will affect not only us, but every nation on earth.
And so, we have the
familiar and disquieting story in our gospel today about the rich man and
Lazarus, the poor man, covered with sores, who had dogs licking them, and who
begged for food and more likely than not some medicine for his sores.
The rich man did not
meet his immediate needs and the poor man, Lazarus
died, and was transported to a place of comfort, compassion and love: the very
bosom of Abraham.
When the rich man,
who did not do what he could do, and was in his power to do – as an influential
man of business and standing in the government of his city / country – when the
rich man died, basically the passage said he went to “the netherworld”, a place
of torment, much worse than the poor man had experienced – in other words, he
went to hell and was being consumed by the flames of loneliness and despair.
When this now
destitute rich man cried out to Father Abraham to have Lazarus just give him a
drop of water to quench his torture, Abraham told him that it was not possible,
because death causes an abyss to be formed from the side of torment / hell and
the side of comfort, peace, and joy on the other / heaven – and it is not
possible to cross that chasm.
When the rich man was
concerned about telling people still on earth of the importance of being a
giving, rather than taking person, being a compassionate rather than selfish
person, being a fellow human being to others who are not so well off rather
than being a conniving, manipulative money and power grubber – Abraham said:
they have the key already in their midst, they have the law and the prophets,
they have the gift of revelation from God concerning these things, they have
the example of people who live as though these things were real and true: LET
THEM HEAR AND FOLLOW THEIR EXAMPLE!
And the rich man was
sad, because the chances of a great many people actually doing this was slim:
may we today NOT be among that crowd: may our lives be like that of those who
TRUST IN GOD completely, and how he can work through human beings to make
things right, good, helpful, and beneficial especially those in authority and
in control of legislation.
But, the lesson here
is not to trust in the men themselves – no matter who they appear to be – but
to trust rather in the GOD who is working through them – and who will be there
always, when these men like the rich man and Lazarus die – and go to the place
that their deeds have merited for them: and that would be heaven or hell.
The choice is always theirs, the choice is
always ours. How will we approach life – our life – here, in this place –
today??
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