20190321
WORLDLY
LIFE BLINDS US TO WHAT IS REALLY ESSENTIAL IN LIFE
21 MARCH, 2019,
Thursday, 2nd Week in Lent
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
Violet.
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First reading
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Jeremiah 17:5-10 ©
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A curse on the man who puts his trust in
man and turns from the Lord
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The Lord says this:
‘A curse on the man who puts his trust in
man,
who relies on things of flesh,
whose heart turns from the Lord.
He is like dry scrub in the wastelands:
if good comes, he has no eyes for it,
he settles in the parched places of the
wilderness,
a salt land, uninhabited.
‘A blessing on the man who puts his trust
in the Lord,
with the Lord for his hope.
He is like a tree by the waterside
that thrusts its roots to the stream:
when the heat comes it feels no alarm,
its foliage stays green;
it has no worries in a year of drought,
and never ceases to bear fruit.
‘The heart is more devious than any other
thing,
perverse too: who can pierce its secrets?
I, the Lord, search to the heart,
I probe the loins,
to give each man what his conduct
and his actions deserve.’
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 1:1-4,6 ©
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Happy the man who has
placed his trust in the Lord.
Happy indeed is the man
who follows not the counsel of
the wicked;
nor lingers in the way of sinners
nor sits in the company of
scorners,
but whose delight is the law of the Lord
and who ponders his law day
and night.
Happy the man who has
placed his trust in the Lord.
He is like a tree that is planted
beside the flowing waters,
that yields its fruit in due season
and whose leaves shall never
fade;
and all that he does shall
prosper.
Happy the man who has
placed his trust in the Lord.
Not so are the wicked, not so!
For they like winnowed chaff
shall be driven away by the
wind:
for the Lord guards the way of the just
but the way of the wicked
leads to doom.
Happy the man who has
placed his trust in the Lord.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Lk15:18
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Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal
glory!
I will leave this place and go to my
father and say:
‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and
against you.’
Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal
glory!
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Or:
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cf.Lk8:15
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Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal
glory!
Blessed are those who,
with a noble and generous heart,
take the word of God to themselves
and yield a harvest through their
perseverance.
Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal
glory!
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Gospel
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Luke 16:19-31 ©
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Dives and Lazarus
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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.”’
WORLDLY LIFE
BLINDS US TO WHAT IS REALLY ESSENTIAL IN LIFE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ JER 17:5-10; LK 16:19-31 ]
During the season of Lent, the Church
invites everyone to a deeper prayer life complemented by fasting and
almsgiving. Why is that so? This is because during this annual
retreat of the whole Church culminating in the celebration of New Life at
Easter, we are called to go back to the essentials of life. Lent is
a celebration of spring and during this season; we recall the beginning of
life. If this life were to grow and blossom, we must then
ask the most fundamental question of how life is to be lived fully and
fruitfully.
But even before we can attempt to do this, we
must ask ourselves what is the main obstacle that is preventing us from looking
at life in a holistic manner. The truth is that when we look at life
merely from the sensual and material world, we reduce ourselves to material
beings. We are on the same level of animals, fishes and insects where
they eat, sleep and work for their food. Beyond that, they have no
purpose in life. But we are human beings. We look for more than
just physical needs or material satisfaction; we look for meaning, purpose and
love. In seeking these non-material things, it proves that we are more
than mere animals. We have a spirit or a soul or a mind that seeks truth,
meaning and love.
This explains why Jeremiah warns us, “A curse
on the man who puts his trust in man, who relies on things of the flesh, whose
heart turns from the Lord. He is like dry scrub in the wastelands: if
good comes, he has no eyes for it, he settles in the parched places of the
wilderness, a salt land, uninhabited.” If we have eyes only on the
material world and the things of this world, we cannot go far. When
we rely on sensual enjoyment, we will reach saturation and then find life so
meaningless. How much can a person really eat and drink? Even if he
or she could, is meaning found in eating and drinking and merrymaking?
Does he or she not need to feel useful, contributive to society and grow in
understanding, knowledge and love? As Jeremiah says, that man who seeks
only for the things of this world will feel empty, always like a desert and
always living in wilderness.
This was the case of the
rich man in today’s gospel. He was indifferent to the plight of the poor man,
Lazarus. He was not an evil man. He did nothing wrong. He was
just enjoying himself, dressed in luxury and enjoying life. But because
of his attachment to the world and living such a sensual life, he was oblivious
to the suffering of the poor man. Even the dogs knew that Lazarus was
sick, hungry and lonely. Only the dogs came to console him in his
abandonment, gave him love, company and licked his wounds to heal him.
And there are many of such people like the rich man today. They are busy
with their careers, with their social life, entertainment, fine dining,
holidaying, etc but forget that their loved ones are lonely at home, the poor,
the hungry and the sick are at their backyard,.
It is basically a sin of
indifference and omission.
Indifference comes from the lack of touch with human reality. When people
live in their castles, they are sheltered from the realities of life.
They take for granted what they have and what they are enjoying. They do
not know what it means to be hungry, what it is to be without food or water; or
be without a job. They do not know what it means to be sick without
medical care because of the lack of no money to see a doctor. They do not
understand why for the lower income earners, every dollar is a big deal,
especially when it means nothing for the rich. They do not know the
inconvenience of the poor having to make end meets, paying for education and
health care. They do not know the worries of the elderly and the
loneliness they go through. Indeed, when we live in our own world, we end
up not feeling with them and therefore we have no pity except condemnation and
disgust for them. We look down on them and despise them. Instead of
showing compassion, we blame them for the situations they are in. We do
nothing to lift up their lives.
If we think that by
reaching out to the poor and the needy we can be contented, then again we are
wrong. Even having an authentic human relationship is not sufficient to
give us true meaning in life. The Lord said, “A curse on the man who puts his trust
in man.” In other words, even if we go beyond the “things of the flesh”
but our “hearts turn from the Lord”, we have no fulfillment or joy. A day
will come when we realize that our health will fail regardless how health
conscious we are. Tragedy will come without preparation. Our loved
ones will meet a tragic accident or we will suffer the death of our dear
ones. The business that we built over the years could collapse in a
matter of months. Our wealth could be taken away in an instant.
Life is unpredictable. So nothing in this world will stay. Our
friends and spouse will have to leave us when the time comes.
The teaching from
Gaudium et Spes captures what the scripture readings want to say. “Very many people, infected as they
are with a materialistic way of life, cannot see this dramatic state of affairs
in all its clarity, or at least are prevented from giving thought to it because
of the unhappiness that they themselves experience. Many think that
they can find peace in the different philosophies that are
proposed. Some look for complete and genuine liberation for man from
man’s efforts alone. They are convinced that the coming kingdom of man on earth
will satisfy all the desires of his heart. There are those who
despair of finding any meaning in life: they commend the boldness of those who
deny all significance to human existence in itself, and seek to impose a total
meaning on it only from within themselves. But in the face of the
way the world is developing today, there is an ever increasing number of people
who are asking the most fundamental questions or are seeing them with a keener
awareness: What is man? What is the meaning of pain, of evil, of death which
still persist in spite of such great progress? What is the use of those
successes achieved at such a cost? What can man contribute to society, what can
he expect from society? What will come after this life on earth?”
What we need is a
relationship with God as the basis before everything else. This is what the prophet Jeremiah
says, “A blessing on the man who puts his trust in the Lord. With the Lord for
his hope, he is like a tree by the waterside that thrusts its roots to the
stream: when the heat comes it feels no alarm, its foliage stays green; it has
no worries in a year of drought, and never ceases to bear fruit.” Our life is
more than this world. We are destined for eternal life. Only Christ
can give us the answer to the fullness of life. Only Christ by His life,
passion, death and resurrection can reveal to us our true identity and our goal
in life. Only He as the Way, the Truth and the Life can show us how to
live that fullness of life in love and service of God and man.
The question is, whether
we are ready to stop and reflect on how we are living our life. Are we still too absorbed by the
world that we never learn our lesson till it is too late? If so, then we
suffer the tragedy of the rich man. It is so significant that the rich
man is not even named in the gospel because he is that man the world can be
identified with. He is that man who does not even know himself, and even
less of others and God. Only the poor man was named. He was
given a name because he knew God and God knew him. In his sufferings, he
did not complain and he did not curse. He accepted his sufferings humbly
and with fortitude. Hence, God rewarded him with the fullness of life by
embracing him. Life is fulfilled in God alone. So we are
warned not to be like the rich man who regretted, albeit too late.
Abraham made it clear to him when he asked for a favour to warn his five
brothers. He said, “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.” How true! If you do not repent and begin to take stock of
your life, it will be too late. You would have lived your life in
vain. We can enjoy our lives right now but at our death bed, we cannot
face God, our fellowmen and even ourselves, because our life has been lived
only for ourselves and for this world. How can we have the dignity
and courage to face God after death when we had nothing to do with Him and the
saints when we were on earth? “Not so are the wicked, not so! For they like
winnowed chaff shall be driven away by the wind for the Lord guards the way of
the just but the way of the wicked leads to doom.”
So let us during this
season of Lent make time for prayer, a prayerful meditation on the Word of God. We must ask those things that are
really essential for happiness in life. Let us not pursue the transient
and the passing things of this world. What will last? Love,
relationships, goodness, compassion and charity are the things that will
last. When we are convicted that life is more than eating and enjoying,
then we begin to reach out to the poor in almsgiving. As we reach
out to them, we begin to see God and appreciate life more, especially those
things that we have taken for granted. We begin to feel with our brothers
and sisters in their sufferings, in their joy and we become more human and
therefore godly.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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