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Twenty Sixth Sunday In Ordinary Time (Year C)

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Twenty Sixth Sunday In Ordinary Time (Year C)

Amos 6.1, 4-7;
Ps 145;
I Tim 6.11-16;
Lk 16.19-31

  1. Today’s gospel, often referred to as the parable of “Dives and Lazarus”, is well-known and popular. For many people it has a clear and attractive message: the poor go to heaven, and the rich go to hell. Nice and smooth ! Cool and simple! And it would be foolish to deny that this element is there. Our Lord clearly wanted to shake rich people out of any possible complacency. We must also remember that it was a widely accepted Jewish belief that material prosperity in this world was a sign of God’s approval. If your business prospered, then clearly the Father of Israel was looking after you. By contrast, Christ taught again and again that it was the dispositions of the heart, not external circumstances or observances, that put us on the side of the angels, and kept us there.
  2. The parable is also a sharp reminder of the need to show compassion. The Rich Man feasted magnificently, but gave nothing to the Poor Man. Now the tables are turned. They both get their reward. The blessings of the afterlife, Christ reveals, are not commensurate with material prosperity in this life. The fact that tasty morsels come our way now is no guarantee of comparable sweetmeats beyond the grave. Terrestrial delicacies – foie-gras and champagne jellies – are no preparation for the celestial banquet. Once again, as in many other places in the gospels, the stark message is that the first shall be last and the last shall be first. God’s kingdom is not just a mirror image of earthly success or failure. God’s kingdom turns everything upside down, and inside out.
  3. Thus far, today’s gospel is fairly straightforward. But there is more, much more! The twist of the knife, the turn of the screw, comes at the end. “Dives”, the Rich Man, asks Abraham to send a heavenly messenger to his brothers, so that they can be spared sharing his fate, his damnation. Abraham points out the uselessness of such a piece of evidence, useless for convincing those who rejected Moses and the prophets. Having rejected the testimony of their own prophets, they are hardly likely, says Abraham, almost superciliously, to be convinced, even if someone should rise from the dead. Abraham’s statement is a delicious slice of irony, far tastier than anything that Dives might have swallowed at one of his luxurious banquets. The juicy irony, wasted on him but not on us (who have the hindsight of faith) is that what Dives asked for is precisely what actually happened, in the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. Someone did rise from the dead, and countless, countless, souls remain singularly unimpressed and unconvinced. Resurrection happened, and the crowd yawns, and quickly returns to its well-stocked picnic-hamper, a hamper bulging with luxurious trifles: the trifles of the world, the flesh and the devil.
  4. One of the greatest tasks facing the Church today, in a world where neo-paganism is rapidly gaining the upper hand, is how to convince people, rich and poor alike, that Christ matters, that Christ makes a difference, that Christ really is the Truth, the Life and the Way. Many people accept some of even most of His moral teachings. The problem is helping them to understand that His death and resurrection are actual realities, that He is alive today, here and now. Some people have said to me (and in a sense one can understand it) that even if He did rise from the dead, that is now two thousand years in the past, so what possible relevance is it today? Is the resurrection not locked firmly in the past, two thousand years beyond our reach?
  5. Our answer is of course that the resurrection transcends time and space. The Lord of history makes all moments ‘now’, and all places ‘here’. The Risen living Lord is not locked in the past. He lives and reigns today. Very well, some say. If that is the case, where do I find Him, this embodiment of resurrection? I’m afraid that this is the point where our answer is sometimes rather slow, our confidence rather lacking. What we should say, with great conviction, is that the best place of all, the best moment of all, to find resurrection is of course in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar, God’s Eucharist, Holy Mass. That sacred action, that heavenly ritual, are the miraculous lens through which the light of the Risen Christ comes shining into our little world. That’s our answer. If you want to meet the risen Christ, go to Mass. When you attend Mass, you witness the miracle of God’s presence. In the Mass, bread and wine are miraculously transformed into a living Person, Christ the Lord. The One Whom the consecration makes present is not the dead Christ. It is the One Who died on the Cross, but Who then rose from death, and now lives for ever.
  6. Celebrating Mass properly, attending Mass reverently, this is a big responsibility. It’s a responsibility not only for our own benefit, but for the benefit of those neo-pagan crowds who never darken the doors of a church. But what if they did, by chance or providential prompting, come to church while Mass was being celebrated? What impression would they get? Would they feel that the people there were doing something which though strange to the outside observer was clearly the most important thing in their whole lives? Would the behaviour and demeanour of priests and people show that a miracle was in progress? Would the spirituality and beauty of this act of worship be a convincing pointer for the enquiring mind and enquiring heart to the real presence of God? Convincing proof that new life, new hope, transforming joy and healing love were all on offer?
  7. We really should examine our conscience about the way we offer, attend and celebrate Mass. Does the way we participate and worship this adorable sacrament offer our needy brethren any proof whatsoever that Someone is here, Someone divine, Someone risen from the dead, truly present – the King of glory?
    The real and living presence of Christ is in the Eucharist and here he turns our fiasco into a feast and a blessing for everyone!

Fr Joseph Osho

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