20160925 LET THE POOR INSPIRE US
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
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First reading
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Amos 6:1,4-7 ©
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The almighty Lord
says this:
Woe to those
ensconced so snugly in Zion
and to those who feel
so safe on the mountain of Samaria,
those famous men of
this first of nations
to whom the House of
Israel goes as client.
Lying on ivory beds
and sprawling on
their divans,
they dine on lambs
from the flock,
and stall-fattened
veal;
they bawl to the
sound of the harp,
they invent new
instruments of music like David,
they drink wine by
the bowlful,
and use the finest
oil for anointing themselves,
but about the ruin of
Joseph they do not care at all.
That is why they will
be the first to be exiled;
the sprawlers’
revelry is over.
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Responsorial
Psalm
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Psalm 145:7-10 ©
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My soul, give
praise to the Lord.
or
Alleluia!
It is the Lord who
keeps faith for ever,
who is
just to those who are oppressed.
It is he who gives
bread to the hungry,
the Lord,
who sets prisoners free.
My soul, give
praise to the Lord.
or
Alleluia!
It is the Lord who
gives sight to the blind,
who
raises up those who are bowed down.
It is the Lord who
loves the just,
the Lord,
who protects the stranger.
My soul, give
praise to the Lord.
or
Alleluia!
The Lord upholds the
widow and orphan
but
thwarts the path of the wicked.
The Lord will reign
for ever,
Zion’s
God, from age to age.
My soul, give
praise to the Lord.
or
Alleluia!
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Second reading
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1 Timothy
6:11-16 ©
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As a man dedicated to
God, you must aim to be saintly and religious, filled with faith and love,
patient and gentle. Fight the good fight of the faith and win for yourself the
eternal life to which you were called when you made your profession and spoke
up for the truth in front of many witnesses. Now, before God the source of all
life and before Christ, who spoke up as a witness for the truth in front of
Pontius Pilate, I put to you the duty of doing all that you have been told,
with no faults or failures, until the Appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who at the due time
will be revealed
by God, the blessed
and only Ruler of all,
the King of kings and
the Lord of lords,
who alone is
immortal,
whose home is in
inaccessible light,
whom no man has seen
and no man is able to see:
to him be honour and
everlasting power. Amen.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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Jn10:27
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The sheep that belong
to me listen to my voice,
says the Lord,
I know them and they
follow me.
Alleluia!
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Or
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2Co8:9
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Jesus Christ was
rich,
but he became poor
for your sake,
to make you rich out
of his poverty.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Luke 16:19-31 ©
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Jesus said to the
Pharisees, ‘There was a rich man who used to dress in purple and fine linen and
feast magnificently every day. And at his gate there lay a poor man called
Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to fill himself with the scraps that
fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even came and licked his sores. Now the
poor man died and was carried away by the angels to the bosom of Abraham. The
rich man also died and was buried.
‘In his
torment in Hades he looked up and saw Abraham a long way off with Lazarus in
his bosom. So he cried out, “Father Abraham, pity me and send Lazarus to dip
the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these
flames.” “My son,” Abraham replied “remember that during your life good things
came your way, just as bad things came the way of Lazarus. Now he is being
comforted here while you are in agony. But that is not all: between us and you
a great gulf has been fixed, to stop anyone, if he wanted to, crossing from our
side to yours, and to stop any crossing from your side to ours.”
‘The
rich man replied, “Father, I beg you then to send Lazarus to my father’s house,
since I have five brothers, to give them warning so that they do not come to
this place of torment too.” “They have Moses and the prophets,” said Abraham
“let them listen to them..” “Ah no, father Abraham,” said the rich man “but if
someone comes to them from the dead, they will repent.” Then Abraham said to
him, “If they will not listen either to Moses or to the prophets, they will not
be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead.”’
LET THE
POOR INSPIRE US
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: [ Amos 6:1.4-7; Ps 145:6-10; 1 Tim 6:11-16; Luke 16:19-31 ]
We have so many problems,
at home, at work and in our personal life. Some of us are sick and some
of us have to deal with difficult people at work and at home.
Others feel overwhelmed with life. Although some of us are rich and well
off, we are also not happy. Those of us who are retired should be the
happiest people on this earth, but are they happy too? So we lament all
day and for many reasons.
What is the real reason for
exaggerating our problems? It is the sin of affluence. Why do we count
our woes instead of our blessings? What stands out in today’s
scripture readings is the sin of insensitivity and indifference. Indeed,
in the gospel, the rich man did not do any wrong. He committed no
evil. He was simply enjoying himself and indulging in a luxurious
life. Nothing is mentioned of whether his riches were ill-gotten, but
simply that he dressed well, lived well and feasted “magnificently every
day.” So too the prophet Amos similarly charged the rich in his
time. They were also living a lavish and comfortable life; feasting and
drinking, and enjoying themselves. But both shared a common sin, they were
indifferent to the plight of the poor and the happenings around them.
Insensitivity is the sin of
the rich and the affluent. Most of us are oblivious to the sufferings of
humanity. We live in our own little world, enjoying ourselves, living a
comfortable life, having all that we want. But we do not go beyond our
world to the larger world where so many are suffering from poverty, hunger,
malnutrition, illness, disease, lack of proper accommodation and
unemployment. Some are worse; they suffer from injustice, oppression,
manipulation and discrimination.
Of course, there are others
who are not simply oblivious but they choose to be indifferent to the
predicament of the poor and the migrants. We do not want to know or to
see that there are people struggling to make ends meet and eking out a living
for the day. In many countries, we see the poor abandoned and the sick simply
lying on the streets without any assistance. They are simply
ignored. Even in Singapore, if we open our eyes wide enough, we see the
poor suffering in our backyard. Perhaps they are not as destitute as
those in other countries, but they are certainly deprived of proper food and
housing, particularly the abandoned elderly and the disadvantaged. There
are also many migrants in Singapore who have been cheated of promised jobs and
money. Some ended up being forced into engaging in immoral activities.
What are the consequences
when we are oblivious or indifferent to the sufferings of the poor? The
scripture readings warn us that “they will be the first to be exiled.” To
be exiled means that we are alienated from ourselves and our loved ones.
We lose our humanity. “But that is not all: between us and you a great
gulf has been fixed, to stop anyone, if he wanted to, crossing from our side to
yours, and to stop any crossing from your side to ours.” We are called to
love and to feel with others. This is what com-passion means and what
makes us human.
When we can no longer
identify with our fellowmen, we lose the capacity to be human. Sometimes,
when we reflect on the cruelty of man towards their fellowmen, whether in the
battlefields, at concentration camps or in the daily abuses that take place in
our homes and on our streets, these perpetrators have lost touch with their
humanity. How else can we explain how people could be so cruel and
heartless towards their fellowmen? The principle of life is that we do
not do unto others what we do not like them to do unto us. But when we do
not know what it means to be human anymore, then we become brutally cruel to
others.
Secondly, we lose our
spirit because we have reduced ourselves to the level of animals. When
all we care about is eating, enjoying and sleeping, life becomes
meaningless. When we live sensually, we are no better than animals.
When life is reduced to this level, we starve our spirit, which yearns for
meaning, purpose, love and giving. There are some people who just
waste their life away by doing all the things that do not give life. We
can never become fully alive if we just live on this level. Meaning is
found only when we live for others, when we learn how to care for others.
This is the only way to live. Those who live passionately are always
those who live for the world, regardless of who we are. By living for others,
we live even more fully. Those whose life lack passion are those who idle
their time away, watching TV all day, eating and doing the mundane things, and
just gossip and gossip.
Thirdly, we become
ungrateful for the blessings we receive. When we are oblivious to how others
are suffering, we begin to take for granted what we have and the comforts we
are blessed with. Instead of being grateful for God’s blessings and using
them well, we complain all the time that we do not have this and that.
Because we only seek to satisfy our craving for things and pleasure, we are
never satisfied. It is only when we know and see how little others have
and yet are so joyful and happy in life that we begin to wonder what is missing
in our lives. Indeed, when you visit the people in the poorer countries,
you see that they may be poor, but they are always so happy and grateful for
the little things in life. The most difficult people to please are
the rich.
So if we want to find
happiness in life, we must come to the Lord. He is found in the
poor. It is significant that the rich man was without a name. But
the poor man had a name – Lazarus. He was truly a man. He knew how
to be a man because he could feel and knew that he depended on God alone. God
recognized the poor man but for those who are rich and live for themselves, He
will not be able to recognize, as we have read in the Last Judgement story when
the Lord would say, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least
of these, you did it not to me.” (Mt 25:45) The rich
who cannot feel and cannot love are truly poor.
The irony of today’s gospel
is that the rich asked the poor man for help; not the other way
around! It is significant that the rich man who suffered the
consequences of alienation, separation and most of all the emptiness of life
symbolized by the fires of hell, sought help for his brothers by pleading with
Abraham to send Lazarus to warn them. But the reply of Abraham was this,
“If they will not listen either to Moses or to the prophets, they will not be
convinced even if someone should rise from the dead.” Although the
evangelist was alluding to Christ’s resurrection, the point remains that
without a personal encounter with the Risen Lord or the poor and the suffering,
we will not be converted.
If we do not see, we would
not believe, hence, even if someone were to come “from the dead, they will not
repent.” So if we wish to avoid becoming oblivious and indifferent
to the sufferings and struggles of the poor, then we must be personally in
touch with them. We must go out of our comfort zones to be with them so
that we can appreciate what we have, be thankful for God’s blessings and in
turn become generous and willing to share what we have with those who are less
privileged than us.
Those of us who have gone
on mercy trips have returned materially poorer but our hearts are richer.
Many are philanthropists simply because they have felt the sufferings of the
poor and the marginalized. In giving, they received tremendous joy and
satisfaction that no pleasure on earth can buy. When we reach out to the
poor, we are enriched and feel more human as well. We grow in the
capacity to love and be compassionate. When we are one with our
fellowmen, life becomes more meaningful. To share the joys and pains of
our fellowmen is what gives us meaning in life. The poor and the
suffering help us to be in touch with our own pains and struggles. We
come to appreciate our blessings and not always think of our woes and
sufferings. Many others suffer more than us even if our sufferings are
not identical. Still, they are sufferings and crosses of life.
Today, we must reach out to
the poor if we are to be truly rich in life and love. We must become more aware,
not just intellectually but be in personal contact with such people, the sick,
the prisoners, the migrants, the poor and the lonely so that we can truly feel
with them in their struggles and pains. As we hear their stories, their
aspirations, woes and afflictions, our hearts will be softened and we will come
to be grateful to God for our blessings and be generous with our sharing as
well.
In this way, we get in
touch with the heart of God and become one with God. The psalmist says,
“It is the Lord who keeps faith forever, who is just to those who are
oppressed. It is he who gives bread to the hungry, the Lord, who sets prisoners
free. It is the Lord who gives sight to the blind, who raises up those who are
bowed down, the Lord, who protects the stranger and upholds the widow and
orphan.”
Finally, St Paul urges us
to be true witnesses of Christ. Let us live our life in such a way
that we have a clear conscience before God and man. We must do all we can
according to the capacity that God has graced us in His love so that we can
appear at the end of time, before our Lord, “with no faults or
failures.” Only then will we not fall into the same tragedy of the
rich man.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights
Reserved
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