26th Sunday C
An elderly miser who had vast real estate holdings suddenly became extremely ill. His temperature quickly soared to 105, and his frightened wife sent for the nearest doctor. After examining the patient, the doctor said to the man's wife, "Madam, I'm sorry I must tell you that your husband is terminally ill. He cannot possibly survive. All I can suggest to you is prayer." Hearing this, the old skinflint summoned up his last remaining ounce of strength and whispered, "Go out and find some needy person and give him a gift of money. Then go to Church and pray that my life be spared." The wife immediately went to the poorest section of town and gave one hundred dollars to a panhandler who looked like he'd really hit bottom. Then she went to the nearest Church and fervently prayed for her husband's recovery. Whereupon, the patient's condition rapidly improved and, as if by a miracle, within days he was completely well again. But when his wife told him that she had given one hundred dollars to a poor beggar, he was outraged. "Why did you do such a thing?" he bellowed. "But you yourself told me to give the money," she reminded him. To which he replied, "With my temperature over 105, couldn't you see that I was delirious?"
Today's Gospel includes a story Jesus told about a rich man and a beggar. They live in two
different worlds. The rich man "feasts sumptuously every day"; the beggar, named Lazarus, literally eats like a stray dog. The rich man covers his body with the finest garments; poor Lazarus' body is covered with sores. Then they both die and, as it was in life, there is a great gulf between them in afterlife, but with this important difference: now the rich man is in Hades where he suffers greatly and the poor beggar is completely fulfilled "in the bosom of Abraham." The rich man realizes that it's all over for him. All his money is of no use to him now. The eternal fix he's in is irreversible. And it's the result of his own doing while on earth.
But his five brothers are still alive and he seeks to warn them of the consequences of their kind of lifestyle. He wants to tell them to change their selfish ways; to have compassion for the downtrodden and the needy, lest they too should end up in Hades, this place of torment. And so he begs Abraham for permission to send that message to his five brothers. But Abraham denies permission, saying, "If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead" (Lk. 16:31).
We are capable of getting bogged down in that same rut. Consequently, this message is coming to us now, from Someone who has risen from the dead. Even so, even the Risen Christ can't get through to us when we don't want to listen. Even the Risen Christ can't get through to us when we think we've "got it made" once-and-for-all. Even the Risen Christ can't get through to us when we put on that "I'll do it my way" attitude and approach to life.
A few years ago, the Christmas Catalog of a California publishing house featured a "made-to-order" children's gift item: a "Me-Book." All the "Me-Books" contained the same full-page color illustrations and a bit of the prose was the same also. Other than that, each book was highly personalized. The idea was that the buyer would send the publisher personal information about the child to whom the book was to be given: name, age, birthday, address, names of brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents, friends, pets, etc. Thus, when the data was keyed into the publisher's computer, out came a book in which the child receiving the gift was the main character.
A boy named Patrick was given one of these books for Christmas by his grandmother. The boy's father said later, You can hardly imagine Patrick's surprise and delight when he pulled the gift out from under the Christmas tree, unwrapped it, and began to read: "Once upon a time, in a little town called Hendersonville, there lived a little boy named Patrick Benson. Now Patrick wasn't just an ordinary little boy. This is a story about one of his adventures. It's the story of the day Patrick met a giraffe..."
Over seventy times Patrick and his street and his friends and family were named. And when he got better acquainted with the giraffe, Patrick discovered that they had the same birthday. Does Patrick like that book? It's his favorite, because to him it's a "Me-Book." And isn't that like us all? We like stories about ourselves.
Suppose someone gives you a Bible this coming Christmas. And suppose, when you pull the gift out from under the Christmas tree and unwrap it and begin to read it, you are surprised and delighted to identify it as a "Me-Book":
You hear Jesus telling the Pharisees they're so closed-minded that even if someone should rise from the dead to warn them they'd better change their ways, they would resist. And, deep within yourself, you hear a voice saying, "That's me!"
You hear the Apostle Peter's denial when a woman identifies him as a close friend of Jesus. And, deep within yourself, you hear a voice saying, "That's me!"
You hear words spoken by the King in Jesus' Parable of the Last Judgment: "Depart from Me...into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, for I was hungry and you gave me no food; I was thirsty and you gave me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me." And, deep within your soul, you hear a voice saying "That's me!"
On the other hand...
You hear the Apostle Paul referring to the faithful as "fools for the sake of Christ." And, deep within your soul, you hear a voice saying, "That should be me!"
You read in the Gospel of Luke that the Apostle Peter, having three times denied being Jesus' friend, "went out and wept bitterly." And, deep within your soul, you hear a voice saying, "That should be me."
You hear the suffering Jesus speak from the Cross: "Father forgive them." And, deep within your soul, you hear a voice saying, "That should be me!"
You hear words spoken by the King in Jesus' Parable of the Last Judgment, "O come, blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me." And, deep within your soul, you hear a voice saying, "That should be me!"
In today's Gospel, the rich man who dies and goes to Hades, agonizes over the possibility that his five living brothers will suffer the same fate. "But if someone goes to them from the dead," he says, "they will repent." Then he hears the voice of Abraham saying, "If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead."
We need to say "Yes!" to Jesus' call to repentance. We need to understand that repentance is what it takes to heal the broken relationship between ourselves and God, caused by our sinfulness. We need to be honest with ourselves about what we have been and where we have been, what we should become and where we should be going. May God Bless you all!
An elderly miser who had vast real estate holdings suddenly became extremely ill. His temperature quickly soared to 105, and his frightened wife sent for the nearest doctor. After examining the patient, the doctor said to the man's wife, "Madam, I'm sorry I must tell you that your husband is terminally ill. He cannot possibly survive. All I can suggest to you is prayer." Hearing this, the old skinflint summoned up his last remaining ounce of strength and whispered, "Go out and find some needy person and give him a gift of money. Then go to Church and pray that my life be spared." The wife immediately went to the poorest section of town and gave one hundred dollars to a panhandler who looked like he'd really hit bottom. Then she went to the nearest Church and fervently prayed for her husband's recovery. Whereupon, the patient's condition rapidly improved and, as if by a miracle, within days he was completely well again. But when his wife told him that she had given one hundred dollars to a poor beggar, he was outraged. "Why did you do such a thing?" he bellowed. "But you yourself told me to give the money," she reminded him. To which he replied, "With my temperature over 105, couldn't you see that I was delirious?"
Today's Gospel includes a story Jesus told about a rich man and a beggar. They live in two
different worlds. The rich man "feasts sumptuously every day"; the beggar, named Lazarus, literally eats like a stray dog. The rich man covers his body with the finest garments; poor Lazarus' body is covered with sores. Then they both die and, as it was in life, there is a great gulf between them in afterlife, but with this important difference: now the rich man is in Hades where he suffers greatly and the poor beggar is completely fulfilled "in the bosom of Abraham." The rich man realizes that it's all over for him. All his money is of no use to him now. The eternal fix he's in is irreversible. And it's the result of his own doing while on earth.
But his five brothers are still alive and he seeks to warn them of the consequences of their kind of lifestyle. He wants to tell them to change their selfish ways; to have compassion for the downtrodden and the needy, lest they too should end up in Hades, this place of torment. And so he begs Abraham for permission to send that message to his five brothers. But Abraham denies permission, saying, "If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead" (Lk. 16:31).
We are capable of getting bogged down in that same rut. Consequently, this message is coming to us now, from Someone who has risen from the dead. Even so, even the Risen Christ can't get through to us when we don't want to listen. Even the Risen Christ can't get through to us when we think we've "got it made" once-and-for-all. Even the Risen Christ can't get through to us when we put on that "I'll do it my way" attitude and approach to life.
A few years ago, the Christmas Catalog of a California publishing house featured a "made-to-order" children's gift item: a "Me-Book." All the "Me-Books" contained the same full-page color illustrations and a bit of the prose was the same also. Other than that, each book was highly personalized. The idea was that the buyer would send the publisher personal information about the child to whom the book was to be given: name, age, birthday, address, names of brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents, friends, pets, etc. Thus, when the data was keyed into the publisher's computer, out came a book in which the child receiving the gift was the main character.
A boy named Patrick was given one of these books for Christmas by his grandmother. The boy's father said later, You can hardly imagine Patrick's surprise and delight when he pulled the gift out from under the Christmas tree, unwrapped it, and began to read: "Once upon a time, in a little town called Hendersonville, there lived a little boy named Patrick Benson. Now Patrick wasn't just an ordinary little boy. This is a story about one of his adventures. It's the story of the day Patrick met a giraffe..."
Over seventy times Patrick and his street and his friends and family were named. And when he got better acquainted with the giraffe, Patrick discovered that they had the same birthday. Does Patrick like that book? It's his favorite, because to him it's a "Me-Book." And isn't that like us all? We like stories about ourselves.
Suppose someone gives you a Bible this coming Christmas. And suppose, when you pull the gift out from under the Christmas tree and unwrap it and begin to read it, you are surprised and delighted to identify it as a "Me-Book":
You hear Jesus telling the Pharisees they're so closed-minded that even if someone should rise from the dead to warn them they'd better change their ways, they would resist. And, deep within yourself, you hear a voice saying, "That's me!"
You hear the Apostle Peter's denial when a woman identifies him as a close friend of Jesus. And, deep within yourself, you hear a voice saying, "That's me!"
You hear words spoken by the King in Jesus' Parable of the Last Judgment: "Depart from Me...into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, for I was hungry and you gave me no food; I was thirsty and you gave me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me." And, deep within your soul, you hear a voice saying "That's me!"
On the other hand...
You hear the Apostle Paul referring to the faithful as "fools for the sake of Christ." And, deep within your soul, you hear a voice saying, "That should be me!"
You read in the Gospel of Luke that the Apostle Peter, having three times denied being Jesus' friend, "went out and wept bitterly." And, deep within your soul, you hear a voice saying, "That should be me."
You hear the suffering Jesus speak from the Cross: "Father forgive them." And, deep within your soul, you hear a voice saying, "That should be me!"
You hear words spoken by the King in Jesus' Parable of the Last Judgment, "O come, blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me." And, deep within your soul, you hear a voice saying, "That should be me!"
In today's Gospel, the rich man who dies and goes to Hades, agonizes over the possibility that his five living brothers will suffer the same fate. "But if someone goes to them from the dead," he says, "they will repent." Then he hears the voice of Abraham saying, "If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead."
We need to say "Yes!" to Jesus' call to repentance. We need to understand that repentance is what it takes to heal the broken relationship between ourselves and God, caused by our sinfulness. We need to be honest with ourselves about what we have been and where we have been, what we should become and where we should be going. May God Bless you all!
