Who Is Lazarus At Our Door?
2022년 9월 25일Who Is Lazarus At Our Door?
< Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time >
I don’t know about you, but today’s readings make me feel a little uneasy. And they should! The first reading from Jeremiah is unsettling enough, when the prophet warns that the wealthy of Jerusalem will be the first carried off into exile in Babylon. The gospel is worse. It’s not just being rich or having money that is the problem. Being rich is not a sin! Having money is no disgrace! Rather, the scripture warns us not to let our money blind us to the poverty around us or let our wealth stop our ears to the cry of the poor at our gate.
The gospel story is disturbing on many levels. The poor man, Lazarus, has a name. In Hebrew it’s Eliezer, “the one God helps.” The rich man has no name! That is to say, either the rich man has no identity or else the gospel wants each of us to consider ourselves to be the rich man. Lazarus dies and is carried by angels to rest in the bosom of Abraham. The rich man died and was buried. Period. Ah, but in the next world the nameless rich man is in torment while Lazarus enjoys eternal rest. But here’s the kicker: what sin did the rich man commit to merit eternal damnation? We are told only this: he IGNORED Lazarus at his gate. That should wake us up to ask “Who are we ignoring, perhaps on a daily basis, perhaps right near our own home? In this gospel, the sin isn’t murder, adultery or jealousy. May God deliver us all from the terrible sin of indifference before it’s too late!