Boys & Girls Club Annual Breakfast at NSCC Akerley Campus @BGCGreaterHfx pic.twitter.com/3d2PdqHYM2— Tony Mancini (@TonyMancini_NS) February 28, 2018
The Prophet Jeremiah compares those who trust in human direction rather than the will of God to a barren bush in the wasteland.
In the Gospel from Luke the wealthy man who avoids seeing poor Lazarus experiences an eternal reversal of fortune.
* [16:19–31] The parable of the rich man and Lazarus again illustrates Luke’s concern with Jesus’ attitude toward the rich and the poor. The reversal of the fates of the rich man and Lazarus (Lk 16:22–23) illustrates the teachings of Jesus in Luke’s “Sermon on the Plain” (Lk 6:20–21, 24–25).Beth Samson reminds us of the responsibility that comes with the privilege we are afforded by our race, or social position.
Who or what has been the Lazarus in my experience?Have I responded with the compassion and sharing our communities need? How can I better notice and tend to the Lazarus around me?
James Sledge does not need much convincing that white privilege is a real problem in North America, but that doesn't mean he truly sees it. He really cannot imagine that if his car broke down a police officer who stopped to investigate might even consider shooting him.
I recently read Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. It moved me more than any book I've read in a long time because it opened my eyes. By that I mean that it allowed me to see as another does, to experience a terrible fear and dread and anger that I have never known in my lifetime of middle-class whiteness. I wonder if I didn't experience something akin to what the rich man felt when he actually saw Lazarus for the first time (if in fact he ever did; read the parable yourself and see what you think).Don Schwager quotes Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D. on the Creator of both rich and poor.
"God made both the rich and the poor. So the rich and the poor are born alike. You meet one another as you walk on the way together. Do not oppress or defraud anyone. One may be needy and another may have plenty. But the Lord is the maker of them both. Through the person who has, He helps the one who needs - and through the person who does not have, He tests the one who has." (excerpt from Sermon 35, 7)Nathan Albright, in the Edge Induced Cohesion blog, reflects upon one of the most striking similarities between late Second Temple Judaism and present day nominal Christianity.
Both of these religious systems believed in a form of “prosperity gospel” that we find roundly condemned in Job. In this heathen and ungodly mindset, those who are wealthy are considered to be righteous, and those who are poor are considered to be ungodly, as if they were to blame for their poverty and that it was the virtue of the wealthy that made them righteous. In such a society where wealth and poverty were judged to be the result of morality, poverty was a sign of immorality, as if it meant that one was lazy or some kind of addict.Friar Jude Winkler comments on the human tendency to hurt those who hurt us as he contrasts this attitude with an undercurrent of goodness in those connected to God. The rich man in the Gospel can't cross a chasm of attitude of selfishness and invulnerability. The Buddhist description of chopsticks 5 ft long in heaven illustrates the error in this attitude.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, draws on Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Beatrice Bruteau, to encourage that we recognize two motivations for including some knowledge of science in our contemplative lives.
one, we need to understand God’s artistic work in order to appreciate it properly and relate lovingly to the Creator; two, we need to know something of the work in order to join it, to participate in creating the world from here on. This last is the real way of loving, that is, by joining in the life of the beloved.When we avoid using the gifts we have been given for the benefit of others we refuse to join in the work of God and the lives of his children.
References
(n.d.). Jer 17:1. Retrieved March 1, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/jeremiah/jeremiah17.htm
(n.d.). Luke 16:19-31. Retrieved March 1, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/luke/luke16.htm
(n.d.). Online Ministries - Creighton University. Retrieved March 1, 2018, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/online.html
(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved March 1, 2018, from http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/
(2011, April 30). Luke 16:19-31: Lazarus And The Rich Man | Edge Induced Cohesion. Retrieved March 1, 2018, from https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2011/04/30/luke-16-19-31-lazarus-and-the-rich-man/
(2017, December 30). 2018 Daily Meditations - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved March 1, 2018, from https://cac.org/2018-daily-meditations/
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