a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day."

September 29, 2019

Dear Visitors and Parishioners,

In today's gospel, we hear about "a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day." Whilst he enjoyed the privileged life, he completely ignores Lazarus, the poor and destitute, who was "covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man's table."

But death reversed their roles. Whilst the beggar, Lazarus, now enjoyed the happi­ness of heaven, here called 'Abraham's Bosom,'  the rich  man, who had  dined  sumptu­ously, now longed for a drop of water to quench his thirst. Now, at last, he recognized the beggar, but only to use him to bring him some water. He, who had done nothing to assist Lazarus in his need, now wanted the beggar to come to his rescue. The rich man wanted Lazarus to show him the compassion which he, rich man, had refused to give.

But the rich man was told that it was now too late. The torment between them was too great for Lazarus  to come to his aid. Obviously,  not death, but his lack of  compas­sion, during his privileged  life, had created that torment. The rich man  was still totally

absorbed in himself. He only saw Lazarus as a servant, whom he could use to relieve his thirst. It never occurred to him that the poor beggar was his brother, for whom he was morally responsible.

The rich man then begs Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his brothers about the place of torment. Abraham replies that if they have not listened to Moses and the prophets, they will definitely not be convinced by a messenger sent from the dead. Their problem was not ignorance, but the hardness of heart.

This parable is a solemn warning for us. All of us live in this blessed and, frankly, rich country with large surpluses and great wastage. We enjoy material goods far be­ yond those of most people in the world. The media proclaim the desperate need of the homeless in our city. We can even see them outside our Church doors or cark park. We can't plead ignorance of their need, nor of our obligation to come to their aid. Jesus is warning us in last week's gospel to make sure we use our wealth well, to bring people into the Kingdom of God.

If we are honest, we can easily become like the rich man. Probably not as cruel or vicious to the poor, instead we simply fail because we are uncomfortable, fail to acknowl­edge them or we fail to do anything positive to help them. But we can only respond to those in need when we recognize our  relationship  with  them  when  we see  them as  a part of the human family and recognize our duty and responsibility them as Christians.

As Christians may we never forget these words of the palmist "Blessed he who keeps faith forever, secures justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry," (Ps 146:7).

Jesus tell us the story of the rich man and Lazarus to challenge us to care of one another-the hungry, the hurting, the marginalized, the suffering, the stranger, and the forgotten, who are outside the doors of homes, workplaces, churches and the doors of our hearts This is the only parable where the main character is given a name, perhaps in part to make it more personal to each of us reading this. Real people are impacted by our actions.

We have it in our power to be a force for good. This story Brothers and Sisters should motivate us to take a deep hard look at the legacy we're building each day as Christians.

Are we too busy to notice/ recognize the screams of human desperation? Are the roots of our life drawing from the spiritual well of God's concern and mercy, which ministers comfort to a broken world? True followers of Christ will not be indifferent to the plight of the poor like the rich man in this story was. Each day God calls us to recognize  we all have one more brother, one more sister than we realize.

As Saint Catherine of Siena says "Charity is the sweet and holy bond which links the soul with its Creator: it binds God with man and man with God."

-Fr. Peter Damian, O.P.