Jesus has a harsh warning for the wealthy in today’s gospel. We all know the story of Lazarus and the rich man. Lazarus was the beggar who lay at the rich man’s door. He would have given anything to eat the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table, but he was never given anything to eat. Lazarus was sick and he had sores all over his body and it sounds like he couldn’t afford to go to see a doctor, but when he died, he was carried away by the angels. But when the rich man died, he went to a place of torment and cried out to Lazarus because of his suffering.
The condition of both of their lives reversed itself. This time it wasn’t Lazarus who called out asking for help from the rich man, it was the rich man who cried out to Lazarus to help him, by dipping the tip of his finger in water to cool his tongue. But Abraham told Lazarus that there is a great chasm that prevented people from crossing over to the other side. No one could go back and warn the living about this terrible place of torment either, because they had already been told and they were not listening.
There is such a thing as divine justice. God intended things to be this way, or else he would not have created a great chasm to separate the good from the evil in the afterlife. God’s justice, or the thought of hell is very difficult for most people to even think about, yet Christ mentions hell more often in the bible than he does heaven. Jesus wanted to make sure we know that hell is real. Even the Apostle’s Creed says that after Jesus died, he descended into hell. But, Jesus did not tell us this to threaten us or scare us. He loves us enough to warn us of the dangers we could face in eternal life if we do not listen his words. Jesus treats us the same way that parents do, who teach their children not to step into the road in front of the cars driving by, because they could be killed. Jesus has also tried to warn us about hell before it is too late.
The main point in the gospel reading for mass today though, is complacency. All of us are susceptible to getting involved in our own little world and tuning out those around us. We get caught up in our small patterns of living and learn to focus our attention on the things that matters to us, and tune out the things that do not concern us. We view the world through a lens of “what does this have to do with me?” But, the Lord Jesus is trying to call our attention to the fact that we are all our brother’s keeper. We should be just as concerned about the needs of those around us, as we are with our own needs. In fact, that was the second great commandment that Jesus gave us, to love your neighbor as you love yourself.
This week, maybe we could make an effort to notice those around us a little more than usual, especially the people we live and work with everyday. The people that are closest to us are often the easiest to overlook when they are suffering, because they are so familiar to us.
The first reading for mass today describes the suffering that many people with depression go through. Depression feels a lot like a barren wasteland, where all signs of happiness seems to have disappeared and the future seems empty and hopeless.
It isn’t just the physical needs of others that we should notice, but also their emotional well being. Sometimes even the most faith filled person can struggle a lot with depression after a job loss, a marital breakup, the death of a spouse, or the recent diagnosis of a serious illness. They may feel like a barren bush standing alone in a desert, facing a future that seems empty or hopeless. With our companionship, concern and prayers, their faith in God’s goodness and care for them can be revived again though.
Love really is like life giving water to a person who has lost hope. We should notice what other people are really hungry for, and that isn’t always just food. Sometimes what they may really need the most, is just our love, companionship and prayers.
Daily Mass Readings: Jeremiah 17:5-10 / Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4, 6 / Luke 16:19-31
