A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 5, n. 44)
26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – September 30, 2007
“There Was A Poor Man …”
BIBLE READINGS
Am 6:1a, 4-7 // I Tm 6:11-16 // Lk 16:19-31
N.B. Series 5 of BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD: A LECTIO DIVINA APPROACH TO THE SUNDAY LITURGY includes a prayerful study of the Sunday liturgy of Year C from the perspective of the First Reading. For another set of reflections on the Sunday liturgy of Year C, please go to the PDDM Web Archives: WWW.PDDM.US and open Series 2.
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS
I was in the Study Room preparing for this Sunday’s liturgy, when I was paged and requested to go down to our Liturgical Apostolic Center and meet a visitor. He happened to be Msgr. Romy Ranada, a colleague and faculty member at the Maryhill School of Theology in the Philippines where I used to teach. He made a stop over in Los Angeles on his way to Mexico, Washington D.C. and Rome, promoting the cause of beatification of the Servant of God, Msgr. Aloysius Schwartz (1930-1992), an American missionary who dedicated his life to relieve the sufferings of the orphans, the abandoned, the sick and the poor in Korea, Mexico and the Philippines. I had heard of the Boys’ Town and the Girls’ Town in the Philippines as places of refuge for orphans and troubled youth, but I had never heard anything about its founder. I was fascinated to know that the founder of these two charitable institutes was Msgr. Aloysius Schwartz, a native of Washington D.C. Msgr. Al was indeed a very humble and self-effacing man. He spent his life on this earth loving God and serving the poor. His holy life of dedication to the poor is a counterpoint to the pathetic image of the complacent and uncaring rich portrayed in today’s Old Testament reading (Am 6:1a, 4-7) and the Gospel reading (Lk 16:19-31).
Prophet Amos in today’s First Reading laments the self-indulgence and fraternal indifference of “the complacent in Zion” while their hapless brothers and sisters in the Northern Kingdom were about to be destroyed by their enemies, the Assyrians. The rich elite in Judah did not commiserate with the plight of their kinsmen. They were insensitive to the imminent collapse of the tribes of “Joseph” in the Northern Kingdom who also belonged to the Chosen People of Yahweh. In an effort to shake them up, Amos - the “angry prophet” - lambasted the effete rich who luxuriated while remaining blind to the misery of their poor and ill-fated kinsmen and neighbors. Their uncaring and nauseating behavior would result in alienation and destruction. The tribe of Judah, of the Southern Kingdom, would likewise suffer from Assyrian encroachment in the latter part of the eighth century B.C. Judah would be annihilated, though not by the Assyrians, but by the Babylonian invaders. The city of Jerusalem, the pride of the tribe of Judah, would be razed to the ground in 587 B.C. by the army of King Nebuchadnezzar and its elite rich led to a humiliating and punishing exile in Babylon.
James Weaver comments: “Amos’ picture of Judah’s elite, languishing in the south during the northern kingdom of Israel’s tumultuous years, is especially vivid. Amos may well have found contemptible, as well as ridiculous, any person happy to lounge the day away, chewing the finest foods, getting drunk, and, covered in the reek of cologne, warbling along to a twanging harp. But what the prophet fiercely denounces in particular is that these complacent of Zion insulate themselves from the disintegration of the north. So many luxuries they enjoy, yet they are not made ill by the collapse of Joseph. Why does the self-indulgence of Judah’s elite matter to Amos? He and his family were not from the northern kingdom at all, but rather from the village of Tekoa south of Jerusalem in Judah. The collapse of Joseph is not Judah’s collapse. But by designating the northern kingdom Joseph, Amos calls attention to the patriarchal traditions Israel shares with Judah. What kind of brother satisfies expensive tastes while his younger brother suffers? The solidarity one expects of a brother, Amos is saying, cannot be found among Judah’s elite, people who prefer good food and drink to coming to the aid of family.”
The pathetic drama of the rich man’s indifference to the poor man’s misery and hunger is renewed in this Sunday’s Gospel parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. Jesus tells the story of the two men: the Rich Man, known also as Dives, from the Latin adjective meaning “rich”, and the poor man Lazarus, the only character in a Gospel parable with a name, whose Hebrew name (El’azar) means “God is my help” or “God has rescued”. When death came, the Rich Man went to a place of torment, burning with thirst and racked with hunger. He was alienated in his suffering because of his apathy to the plight of the poor while on earth. When Lazarus died, the angels carried him to the bosom of Abraham. His beatitude was a reward not for his poverty, but for his total trust in God, the true riches and sure help in his distress. In the eternal life, an insurmountable distance separated the Rich Man from Lazarus and the Rich Man’s irrevocable grim destiny was his own choice and making.
The biblical scholar, Eugene Maly comments: “For some life after death will mean the absence of any divine blessing. It will mean isolation, aloneness. Perhaps the clearest way to express it is with the concept of distance. The unrepentant sinner is distant from God and from others. And that distance is the sinner’s free choice. Because it is, God himself will respect it … Hell – the irreversible distancing of sinner from God – is the inevitable result of the former’s total rejection of the latter. That is how radical human freedom is. Hell, then, is a real sense is not God’s creation, but the sinner’s. God would not destroy it without destroying human freedom.”
This Sunday’s biblical readings invite us to welcome positively the prophetic witness against the abuse and neglect of the poor. They also depict anew the ever-growing drama of human hunger in our society, calling us to exercise hospitality and responsibility to our needy brothers and sisters. Indeed, the call to conversion, social responsibility and hospitality is ever more expedient and urgent in the life of those who, in today’s world, profess themselves as “Christians”.
The following words of L.J. Lebret are a reproach to the “Dives” character lurking within us. But they are also a forceful appeal for an authentic social concern and an intense invitation to welcome the “legion of Lazarus” in our modern world today. “We have become the wicked rich. Lazarus reclines at our table and must be satisfied with the crumbs that fall from it: a hundredth, a two-hundredth, a thousandth of our national revenue. The richest country in the world, which gives a two-hundredth, wearies us with bragging about its munificence. A few of the gifts are pure and well intentioned; the rest are cheap and self-serving. Lazarus is legion, the overwhelming majority of humanity … We still do not love him … Our hearts remain closed to Lazarus.”
Likewise, St. Basil the Great challenges us to an act of justice by sharing our resources with the poor. Let us allow his words to enlighten our conscience and inspire us to social action as we survey the “legion of Lazarus” around us. “Why are you so rich, and another poor? … To the hungry belongs the bread that you keep; to the naked man, the cloak you keep tucked away.”
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
What were the moral and social issues that provoked Amos and instigated his prophetic indictment? Why did he castigate the rich of Judah? How does the harsh pronouncement of Amos impact you? Are we like the “complacent in Zion” and indifferent to the world’s afflictions? What do we do to overcome our self-indulgence and insensitivity to the plight of our needy brothers and sisters? Do we turn to God to help us be filled with a spirit of fraternal compassion and social responsibility?
2 As we listen to Jesus’ Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, how does the story of reversal of fortunes and irrevocable destiny impact us? Do we see ourselves in the role of the Rich Man? In what ways are we the poor man Lazarus? How does the Gospel of this Sunday motivate us to action?
3 What do we resolve to do about the “legion of Lazarus” that appeal to us silently in anguish? Why is the world’s affliction today so great? How do we bring Christ’s redemption to a social situation marked with indifference to the plight of the poor? Do we turn to Christ for help? Do we beg him to give us the grace to embrace the “Lazarus” who comes into our daily life and to be responsible for him?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: Loving Father,
hope of the poor and defender of the afflicted,
we are deeply sorry for our indifference to the world’s afflictions.
Forgive us for our lack of compassion
and for neglecting the “Lazarus” who sits by our door,
hungry and covered with sores.
Pardon us for our self-indulgence
for it makes us blind in our hearts.
It leads us to ignore the drama
of today’s hungry and defenseless poor.
Send your Holy Spirit upon us that we may learn to care.
Fill us with the love of Christ
that we may be able to embrace and assist the “Lazarus”
who yearns not only for material bread,
but for the bread of peace, justice and compassion.
By our love and fraternal service
to the “legion of Lazarus” still languishing on this earth,
may we too share in the eternal beatitude of the poor,
nestled in the bosom of Abraham.
We love you and thank you
for you are our merciful and compassionate Lord,
now and forever.
Assembly: Amen.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“When the poor man died, he was carried away by the angels to the bosom of Abraham.” (Lk 16:22)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
ACTION PLAN: Consider the many afflictions of the modern “Lazarus” today. Pray to God for the grace to overcome our indifference to the world’s afflictions. In any way you can, strive to relieve the sufferings of the many “Lazarus” that languish in our society today.
ACTION PLAN: To enable us to be more responsible and sensitive to the “legion of Lazarus” in our society, make an effort to spend an hour in Eucharistic Adoration. Visit the PDDM WEB site (www.pddm.us) for the EUCHARISTIC ADORATION THROUGH THE LITURGICAL YEAR (Vol. 3, n. 44): A Weekly Pastoral Tool.
Prepared by Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang PDDM
PIAE DISCIPULAE DIVINI MAGISTRI
SISTER DISCIPLES OF THE DIVINE MASTER
60 Sunset Ave., Staten Island, NY 10314
Tel. (718) 494-8597 // (718) 761-2323
Website: WWW.PDDM.US