By Fr. Marcel Uzoigwe, CSSp
Readings: Amos 6:1.4-7; Psalm 146: 1 Tim 6:11-16: Lk 16:19-31
Dear brothers and sisters,
Every opportunity we have in life is meant to be used wisely. Wherever God has placed us in life, and whatever capacity we have to do something, are in themselves opportunities to be God’s presence that the people around us can feel and be grateful for. Paul said in his second letter to the Corinthians (5:20) that we are ambassadors for Christ. And the work of a good ambassador is to properly represent the one that sent him or her. When we fail to make good use of the opportunities we have, and it passes away, we end up in regret. That is the important theme of today’s readings.
In the first reading, the prophet Amos vehemently rails against the rich who are only concerned about their pleasure without showing interest in what can benefit others. They lay in beds of ivory and stretch themselves upon their couches. They do nothing except feast, and they do so in a totally immoral way. They do not slaughter adult animals, but lambs and calves, because their meat is more tender than that of adult sheep and cattle. So they eat their own future, so to speak because herds with too few young animals are doomed to extinction. For Amos, who was a farmer until God called him, this must have been a terrible experience. Eating lambs and calves also symbolically allude to acts that hurt young people and are capable of negatively affecting their sound and integral development. Whoever does not care about the effect of his or her action on the young people does not have an eye on the future, and any nation that fails to protect its youth is doomed. So, when Amos wrote that these men drank wine with large cups, used costly cream, and never cared about the destruction that was coming to their nation, he was obviously warning that the nation had no future. That is why these men will be the first to go into exile.
If Amos were to live in our society today, he would have a lot to condemn. The power of money and its abuse has become a daily occurrence. Money has become everything. Once you have money, you can buy anything, even a human being. You can even lobby to turn something immoral and absurd to become legal. Think of the hundreds of thousands of street children in the slums of the world’s cities, the hundreds of thousands of other children in Asia and Africa and so many other places that are forced into child labor, sixteen hours of work a day for a very little wage just to continually enrich the companies owned by the rich. And the owners of these companies could be based elsewhere, and we rush to buy the products of these child laborers because they are cheap. In that way, we patronize the practice. Think of child prostitution and human trafficking. If one would take a look at the various evils in the world today, the real people behind them are not often those poor boys and girls who are rather victims, but the rich who sponsor all kinds of organized crimes. Rather than use their wealth to lift up the poor out of poverty, the rich that Amos attacked used their wealth to destroy the future of the young ones.
While Amos concentrated on the temporal consequences of failing to make good use of wealth, Jesus warned in the gospel that it can lead to eternal damnation. To illustrate this point, Jesus told the parable of Lazarus and a certain rich man. Like the rich people in the time of Amos, he too dresses richly and celebrates lavishly every day, while poor Lazarus lies sore-covered at his gate. But the rich man takes no notice of him. It does not even occur to him to have the surplus of food delivered to Lazarus. Unlike the case of the people Amos condemned for their actions (sin of commission), the sin of the rich man in the gospel is that of doing nothing in a situation that he could actually help (sin of omission). Remarkably, Jesus did not give him a name. The poor man, on the other hand, is given a name, Lazarus, which means “God will help”.
Earlier in this chapter which was read last Sunday, Jesus warned us to make friends with the money we have by reaching out to those in need so that when the money fails, we can be admitted into heaven. This rich man paid no attention to such a warning. So when his wealth failed to keep him living, he realized that he has not made any friends in heaven. It is therefore not surprising that he has no name while Lazarus is always remembered because he is the man we sing about at the end of a funeral service: ‘To paradise the angels lead you. And as Lazarus, the poor of old, thou shalt be in the land of peace forever.’ The most important place we need to have our names written is in the Book of Life (cf. Rev. 20:15) which endures forever, and not just in the cheap popularity of the world. Unfortunately, Lazarus could not respond to the rich man’s cry for help because there is already a separation between them (cf. Matthew 25: 31-32) and there is no repentance in the grave.
Jesus did not tell this parable to praise poverty or to condemn wealth. No. Jesus himself had a number of wealthy friends while on earth, like Joseph of Arimathea on whose grave he was buried (cf. John 19:38). Rather he is warning us to make use of all that we have to win eternal life. Paul calls it “fighting the good fight” in his letter to Timothy in the second reading. What matters in life is not what we have but what we do with it, and how it positively affects others who cannot help themselves. The moment we concentrate only on ourselves, we do not build for the future. We do not make friends with heaven. We fail God who is the giver of all gifts, and we do not live to be remembered. It is people who felt loved and cared for by how we relate to them that often remember us. The apostles were not rich in wealth, instead, they gave up what they had for the gospel. Yet the impact the Gospel they preached and the example of their lives made on people’s lives keep their names still among us. If you should close your eyes for a moment and think of the one person that your heart quickly remembers, it might not be a rich person in terms of material wealth but someone that was there for you when you needed his or her help. And that is what the rich man failed to do for Lazarus. He failed to see him as a fellow human being in need. He failed to help. Jesus said, whatever you do to the least of these my brethren, you have done for me (cf. Matthew 25:40).
The readings invite us to reflect on our attitude to what we have and how it influences our relationship with those around us who are in need. Being rich is not just about material wealth. One can be rich in talents, knowledge, time, or in many other ways. We can see that each and every one of us is rich in some way. We also have a lot of migrants, asylum seekers, victims of war who have fled their homes, the aged who are lonely and sick, and the youth needing direction in making life choices. We have our fellow worshippers who are going through difficulties in their lives, families and work-situations. Do we make our time, knowledge, and talents available to reach out to them, to help those confused, or needing direction and care? Let us ask for the grace to always use our wealth positively to help those in need so that when that day comes, those acts of kindness will speak on our behalf.