Daily Retreat 09/30/07
2007 Sep 30 SUN: TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Am 6: 1a. 4-7/ Ps 145(146): 7. 8-9. 9-10 (1b)/ 1 Tm 6: 11-16/ Lk 16: 19-31
From today’s readings: “Woe to the complacent.... Praise the Lord, my soul!... Pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.... There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day, and lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus....”
“If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets....”
The parable of Lazarus and “Dives” (the Latin word for “rich man,” and therefore sometimes used as a name for that man in the story) is simple enough to understand. Those of us in rich nations might not readily identify ourselves with Dives, because we are aware of so many richer than ourselves; and yet, by almost any measurement, we have a higher standard of living than he did! And so, the warning of where his selfishness led is certainly intended for us to heed - woe to any who would ignore it as blithely as Dives dismissed Lazarus, woe to the complacent!
But the parable is not just about God’s love for the poor contrasted with the peril of selfish wealth. The final verses raise the ante by reminding how God always gives fair warning. Believers and doubters alike constantly turn to God with requests (or demands!) for more proof. Abraham’s reply to Dives (“If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets....”) is also a reply to all other such pleas: God has done more than enough to instruct His children in the past - those who ignore Moses and the rest of salvation history, certainly forever find it easy enough to overlook God’s present actions in the world.
But the added irony, of course, is that Jesus Himself did rise from the dead, and return to entrust His Church with the proclamation of the fullness of the Gospel. Even though nothing greater could be imagined, for those with closed minds and hearts entombed in selfish desires, “neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead!” So instead, let’s be persuaded, not just by listening to Moses and the prophets, but most of all, by heeding the lessons and warnings of the One who rose from the dead!
Am 6: 1a. 4-7/ Ps 145(146): 7. 8-9. 9-10 (1b)/ 1 Tm 6: 11-16/ Lk 16: 19-31
From today’s readings: “Woe to the complacent.... Praise the Lord, my soul!... Pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.... There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day, and lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus....”
“If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets....”
The parable of Lazarus and “Dives” (the Latin word for “rich man,” and therefore sometimes used as a name for that man in the story) is simple enough to understand. Those of us in rich nations might not readily identify ourselves with Dives, because we are aware of so many richer than ourselves; and yet, by almost any measurement, we have a higher standard of living than he did! And so, the warning of where his selfishness led is certainly intended for us to heed - woe to any who would ignore it as blithely as Dives dismissed Lazarus, woe to the complacent!
But the parable is not just about God’s love for the poor contrasted with the peril of selfish wealth. The final verses raise the ante by reminding how God always gives fair warning. Believers and doubters alike constantly turn to God with requests (or demands!) for more proof. Abraham’s reply to Dives (“If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets....”) is also a reply to all other such pleas: God has done more than enough to instruct His children in the past - those who ignore Moses and the rest of salvation history, certainly forever find it easy enough to overlook God’s present actions in the world.
But the added irony, of course, is that Jesus Himself did rise from the dead, and return to entrust His Church with the proclamation of the fullness of the Gospel. Even though nothing greater could be imagined, for those with closed minds and hearts entombed in selfish desires, “neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead!” So instead, let’s be persuaded, not just by listening to Moses and the prophets, but most of all, by heeding the lessons and warnings of the One who rose from the dead!
posted by FrPitstick | 9/29/2007
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