The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge our isolation from the needs and lives of the people we encounter daily.
The reading from the Prophet Amos warns that complacent self-indulgence will be punished.
* [6:2] Calneh…Hamath…Gath: city-states overcome by the Assyrians in the eighth century B.C., whose fate should be a lesson to the Israelites. The prophet castigates the leaders for being more intent on pursuing a luxurious lifestyle (vv. 1, 4–6) than reading the signs of the times. (Amos, CHAPTER 6, n.d.)
Psalm 146 offers praise for God’s Help.
* [Psalm 146] A hymn of someone who has learned there is no other source of strength except the merciful God. Only God, not mortal human beings (Ps 146:3–4), can help vulnerable and oppressed people (Ps 146:5–9). The first of the five hymns that conclude the Psalter. (Psalms, PSALM 146, n.d.)
The reading from the First Letter to Timothy consists of exhortations to the Good Fight of Faith.
* [6:11–16] Timothy’s position demands total dedication to God and faultless witness to Christ (1 Tm 6:11–14) operating from an awareness, through faith, of the coming revelation in Jesus of the invisible God (1 Tm 6:15–16). (1 Timothy, CHAPTER 6, n.d.)
The Gospel of Luke is the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus.
* [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).
* [16:19] The oldest Greek manuscript of Luke dating from ca. A.D. 175–225 records the name of the rich man as an abbreviated form of “Nineveh,” but there is very little textual support in other manuscripts for this reading. “Dives” of popular tradition is the Latin Vulgate’s translation for “rich man” (Lk 16:19–31).
* [16:23] The netherworld: see note on Lk 10:15.
* [16:30–31] A foreshadowing in Luke’s gospel of the rejection of the call to repentance even after Jesus’ resurrection. (Luke, CHAPTER 16, n.d.)
Chas Kestermeier, S.J. comments that we now tend to be more positive and to focus more instead on what it takes to be truly Christian and truly alive in that belief. Today’s reading from Timothy is good, but it is an encouragement and not extremely helpful to us personally. We need to have personal goals and an appropriate means to reach them.
Scripture gives us lists of virtues, or maybe better, virtuous attitudes or habits. We have the gifts of the Holy Spirit (wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, and fear of the Lord) in Isaiah 11:2-3, while Galatians 5:22-23 gives us the fruits of the Holy Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control). Beyond those are the cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance), the theological virtues (faith, hope, charity), but also such things as humility, simplicity, gentleness, and awareness/presence. The beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12) are of course also valuable.
What is important is that we wish, with the help of the Spirit, to choose one to concentrate our attention on… (Kestermeier, 2022)
Don Schwager quotes “Creator of both rich and poor,” by Augustine of Hippo, 3540-430 A.D.
"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) (Schwager, n.d.)
The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 16:19-31 comments that we ourselves may be guilty of looking the other way sometimes when we encounter another person’s need. Think about the homeless man on the sidewalk that you drive by on your way to work. Or that young mom in your neighborhood who could use a listening ear or a helping hand. Or the people at the local nursing home with no one to visit them. How often do we “step over” them on our way to somewhere else?
Given today’s readings, it’s a good time to examine how we treat people who are less fortunate than we are. The truth is, we can’t take care of everyone’s needs. But we can ask the Lord to help us see people through his eyes. We can try to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit showing us a need. And we can trust that if we feel God is asking us to do something, he will give us the grace to respond.
“Help me not to pass by someone who needs my help.” (Meditation on Luke 16:19-31, n.d.)
Friar Jude Winkler is reminded by the mission of Amos to the people of the north, Israel, of the horizontal aspect of faith that complements the vertical dimension. The extreme wealth of the nameless man dressed in purple is contrasted with Lazarus meaning “God will help” in the warning parable from Luke. Friar Jude reminds us of the connection of compassion to Jesus' passion.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, in his novitiate year of becoming a Franciscan, discovered the writings of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (1873–1897). Father Richard describes Thérèse’s teaching as “a spirituality of imperfection”. Thérèse came into a nineteenth-century Catholic Church that often believed in an angry, punitive God, perfectionism, and validation by personal good behavior—which is a very unstable and illusory path. In the midst of this rigid environment, Thérèse was convinced that her message, taught to her by Jesus himself, was “totally new.” [3] The gospel of radical grace had been forgotten by many Christians, so much so that Thérèse had to call it “new.”
Thérèse called this simple, childlike path her “little way.” It is a spirituality of imperfection. In a letter to priest Adolphe Roulland (1870–1934), she writes: “Perfection seems simple to me, I see it is sufficient to recognize one’s nothingness and to abandon oneself as a child into God’s arms.” [4] Any Christian “perfection” is, in fact, our ability to include, forgive, and accept our imperfection. As I’ve often said, we grow spiritually much more by doing it wrong than by doing it right. That might just be the central lesson of how spiritual growth happens, yet nothing in us wants to believe it.
If there is such a thing as human perfection, it seems to emerge precisely from how we handle the imperfection that is everywhere, especially in ourselves. What a clever place for God to hide holiness, so that only the humble, “little,” and earnest will find it! A “perfect” person ends up being one who can consciously forgive and include imperfection rather than the ones who think they are totally above and beyond imperfection. It becomes rather obvious once we say it out loud. (Rohr, 2022)
We ponder the many gifts of the Spirit we are offered to be the ambassadors of Christ and we seek the desire to respond with compassion to people we encounter in need.
References
Amos, CHAPTER 6. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved September 25, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/amos/6?1
Kestermeier, C. (2022, September 24). Creighton U. Daily Reflection. Online Ministries. Retrieved September 25, 2022, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/092522.html
Luke, CHAPTER 16. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved September 25, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/16?19
Meditation on Luke 16:19-31. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved September 25, 2022, from https://wau.org/meditations/2022/09/25/495691/
1 Timothy, CHAPTER 6. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved September 25, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1timothy/6?11
Psalms, PSALM 146. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved September 25, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/146?7
Rohr, R. (2022, September 25). Discovering the Little Way — Center for Action and Contemplation. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved September 25, 2022, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/discovering-the-little-way-2022-09-25/
Schwager, D. (n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture ... Retrieved September 25, 2022, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2022&date=sep25
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