Brief synopsis of the readings: We continue this week with the prophet Amos who continues to prophesy about the judgement of the wealthy and details what they do. They sleep in opulent beds, eat the finest foods and care nothing for the previous suffering of their people. Anticipating the conquest from Babylon and exile, the wealthy shall be the first to go. In Luke’s Gospel Jesus spoke a parable about a wealthy man and a poor man. While the wealthy man (who isn’t named) lives with luxury a hungry beggar named Lazarus begs at his door. Eventually Lazarus dies and lives in paradise but when the rich man dies, he goes to a place of torment. Recognizing his torment the wealthy man asks Abraham to have Lazarus quench his thirst. When Abraham refuses he then asks that his brothers be warned lest they suffer the same fate. But Abraham refuses this also as they wouldn’t listen to even Abraham: “If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.”
Several years ago I was talking with one of my hospice patients about the afterlife. She was Christian but also believed in reincarnation. All her life she was able to keep a roof over her head and have enough to eat but it was always a struggle and she often thought about what it would be like to have enough money to not have to worry. She told me that she believed she would be rewarded in her next life by being wealthy, after all, “it’s only fair.” I told her that if she saw me panhandling she should be nice to me. We’ll see.
Today’s Gospel has almost become a cliche for “you’ll get yours someday” and I think it has to be the origin of the scene in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol where Jacob Marley visits Ebeneezer Scrooge. Funny thing is that I believe most of us read this and come away with a vague sense of guilt over what we have without any real path out of it.
So let’s go a little deeper into these readings. They both, obviously, criticize a community where some have enough to waste and others can’t meet thier basic needs. Anyone who lies on a bed of ivory or has enough wine to drink from bowls has clearly built for himself an exclusive world meant to shut out people and things he didn’t want to see. Too bad things didn’t work out for him, as in his torment he could easily see Lazarus in paradise. But even in his torment he couldn’t bring himself to address Lazarus directly and attempted to go through Abraham. Even when his care and concern expanded to include his brothers, he just couldn’t imagine a world that included Lazarus.
On the other hand the isolation had to be greatly present to Lazarus. His most immediate needs, of course, were food and health, but he also lived a lonely life. And part of his loneliness was the belief among many of the rich that his situation was his own fault. At the time of Jesus many believed that poverty, illness, infertility, etc. were punishments from God. In the book of Job his friends waxed eloquently that Job’s sufferings were his own fault.
I don’t think many of us believed this today but there is a strong belief that poverty, addiction and other sufferings are the result of bad choices and an unwillingness to take positive steps. It’s not true but it makes ignoring those in need easier by telling ourselves that God helps those who help themselves. There is truth to that but it shouldn’t absolve the rich from reaching out in their surplus for the other’s need.
When we look at the needs in our world it’s certainly true that many have basic needs of food and shelter but I believe we all suffer from a lack of connection. I’m often drawn to a quotation from Mother Theresa: “The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty — it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There’s a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.” I wonder if the rich man spent so much time ensuring he had enough that he didn’t recognize how lonely he was.
Unfortunately, though, finding connection is almost entirely on the rich man. He could have reached out to Lazarus but short of an invitation Lazarus had no access to the rich man’s table. Perhaps the rich man convinced himself that feeding Lazarus would take from his own need or he believed that giving food to him would only encourage laziness. It just isn’t true.
OK, so how do we do this? I’m not arguing that we all need to quit our jobs, sell our stuff, and give it all away. Nor am I suggesting that we neglect our families to volunteer at the local soup kitchen. I think it’s too easy think so big only to justify doing nothing. I’m a big fan of this: next time you’re at a restaurant, don’t wait for the server to take your empty plate. Instead pick up your plate, and it to the server, make eye contact and say thank you. Or if someone has a name tag, address that person by name. Belonging to the brotherhood and sisterhood of former waiters, tipping even a little more generously is always appreciated.
It’s been my experience that these simple acts of generosity become easier but they can also increase as we recognize opportunities that would have previously eluded us. I’m sad that the rich man didn’t recognized Lazarus across the distance between paradise and torment but I’m sadder that the rich man didn’t see Lazarus when the only thing that separated them was a door. The both suffered from that.
My prayer for all of us that we don’t suffer the same fate.