20250928 OUR HOPE IS NOT DECEPTIVE
28 September 2025, Sunday, 26th Week in Ordinary Time
First reading | Amos 6:1,4-7 |
Woe to those who live in luxury
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.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 145(146):6-10 |
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,
the Lord, who protects the stranger
and upholds the widow and orphan.
My soul, give praise to the Lord.
or
Alleluia!
It is the Lord who loves the just
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!
Second reading |
1 Timothy 6:11-16 |
Do all that you have been told, until the Appearing of the Lord
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.
Gospel Acclamation | Jn10:27 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice,
says the Lord,
I know them and they follow me.
Alleluia!
Or: | 2Co8:9 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Jesus Christ was rich,
but he became poor for your sake,
to make you rich out of his poverty.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Luke 16:19-31 |
Dives and Lazarus
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.”’
OUR HOPE IS NOT DECEPTIVE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Amos 6:1,4-7; Ps 146:6-10; 1 Tim 6:11-16; Lk 16:19-31]
We are celebrating the Jubilee of Hope this year. Rightly, we should consider the nature of Christian hope. What is this hope? Is this hope real or plausible? Can this hope be substantiated? Otherwise, we risk offering our people false hope, or worse, a deceptive one. Indeed, all of us have hopes in life. Without hope, there is no reason to live. We are driven by hope–hope for a better life, a greater sense of well-being than what we currently have. Hope is believing in things not yet seen. In that sense, even those without faith in God–the agnostics and atheists–still live with hope. All of us long for a better life. Otherwise, why would we continue struggling each day, building our families, advancing our careers, or taking care of our health?
But we must be careful that we do not fall into the trap of living in false hope. This was the case of the Israelites in today’s first reading. The inhabitants of the Northern Kingdom of Israel were complacent and self-sufficient. They believed they had secured a comfortable life, safe from their enemies. They thought their kingdom was prosperous and their military strong enough to withstand any attack. So, they indulged in wealth and luxury. But they were not aware that both their political and religious leaders were blind to the reality of the situation. The rich were manipulating the poor; the leaders were self-serving. Cheating, dishonesty and oppression of the poor and the ordinary people were rampant. Spiritually, they were dead, practising rituals only externally to appear righteous, while their hearts were far from God. The commandments were disregarded. The poor grew discontent, divisions spread among the people, and most gravely, trust in leadership disintegrated.
For this reason, the Lord warned the Israelites that their complacency, self-sufficiency, and social injustices would divide the people, leaving them defenceless against their enemies. “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, 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.” The prophet Amos, discerning the signs of his time, warned of the coming downfall of the kingdom: “They will be the first to be exiled; the sprawlers revelry is over.” Indeed, in 722 B.C., his prophecy was fulfilled when Assyria conquered much of Samaria. Israel’s misperception of her security, coupled with the complacency and corruption of her leaders, led to her destruction.
We too can fall into false hope, just like the rich man in today’s Gospel. In the parable, we read that the rich man was dressed “in purple and fine linen and feast magnificently every day.” He too was living in false hope, oblivious to what was happening around him, just like the affluent Israelites in Samaria. But there lay before him “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.” This mirrors another parable: the rich fool who, after reaping an abundant harvest, and thinking he had plenty to enjoy, relax, eat and be merry for the rest of his life, only to have his life demanded of him that very night. The truth in both parables is clear: wealth and luxury offer no guarantee of eternal life or even lasting happiness on earth, for our destiny lies in God’s hands.
Worse still is when we fail to cultivate mercy or give hope to others. The rich man’s sin, like the rich fool, was not merely indulgence but indifference. He lived only for himself – oblivious to the suffering of others. He thought he could find happiness without others in his life. He was not even aware of the hunger and poverty of Lazarus who was lying at the gate of his house. His heart was consumed with himself, leaving no room for others and certainly no room for God. He epitomizes the Israelites during Amos’ time.
However, after his death, he realised too late that his earthly hope was short-lived and could not grant him real and lasting happiness. His hope was only in this life on earth. And so, upon his death, he was separated from God, consumed by misery and isolation, because he had neither God nor love in his heart. In his suffering and emptiness, he finally understood what real poverty and thirst meant – poverty of friendship and compassion. 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.” Abraham replied, “My son, 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.”
This is why Christian Hope is not just for this life on earth but for the fullness of life in heaven. Christian hope is to meet our Lord at the end of our life and find fulfilment in Him. As Scripture says, “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.” Only God can fulfil the deepest hopes of man. All earthly hopes serve only to prepare us for the eternal life with God.
To attain this ultimate hope, we must live out our mission on earth. St Paul reminded Timothy of his mission and calling in life: “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.” We are called to live a life filled with faith and love. Our faith is not merely a profession of our trust in God but also a life of charity for our brothers and sisters. Faith without charity would not be faith, as St James reminded us in his letter: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith.” (Jas 2:14,17f)
Indeed, faith without works will only show that our hope is deceptive. If we truly believe that we will find fullness of life in God, then this hope must already be a foretaste here and now. This is why St Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans: “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” (Rom 5:1,3-5) Furthermore, “it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us, by putting his seal on us and giving us his Spirit in our hearts as a first instalment.” (1 Cor 1:21f)
So in ensuring that our hope is real and alive, we must demonstrate our hope for eternal life with God by already living a life of faith and charity. Through our faith in Christ, especially His passion, death and resurrection, which is the ultimate basis for Christian Hope, we are called to die with Jesus to our sins and indifference to our fellowmen in their need. If our conviction of Christ’s resurrection is real, then we will take heed of the teaching of Christ seriously.
Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections
- Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
- Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
- It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.
Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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