THE WORD
FIRST READING: Amos 6,1.4-7
Thus says the Lord the God of hosts: Woe to those who are complacent in Zion. Those
who lie on beds of ivory,
and lounge upon their couches;
Eating lambs taken from the flock,
and calves from the stall;
Who improvise to the music of the harp,
composing on musical instruments like David,
Who drink wine from bowls,
and anoint themselves with the best oils,
but are not made ill by the collapse of Joseph;
Therefore, now they shall be the fi rst to go into exile,
and the carousing of those who lounged shall cease.
SECOND READING: 1 Tim 6.11-16
But you, man of God, avoid all this. Instead, pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness. Compete well for the faith. Lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called when you made the noble confession in the presence of many witnesses. In charge [you] before God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who gave testimony under Pontius Pilate for the noble confession, to keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ that the blessed and only ruler will make manifest at the proper time, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, and whom no human being has seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal power. Amen.
GOSPEL: Lk 16,19-31
Jesus said to his disciples, “There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores.
When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and from the netherworld, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames.’
Abraham replied, ‘My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented. Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.’ He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment.’
But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’ He said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ Then Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should raise from the dead.’”
IN OTHER WORDS
I have met people who vehemently refused to change their ways, insisting that they alone were responsible for their future. They are people who refused to take the opportunity for another chance in life. On the contrary, I also have come across those begging and pleading for another chance, another crack at life, but too late, unfortunately. Chances had been there but were met with indifference.
Have you experienced God sounding a “wake up” alarm in your life? He speaks to our heart and says, “It is time to wake up and follow me.” Some people hit the snooze button and say, “Not now
Lord, call me again -- a little bit later.” Some people hit that “snooze button” so many times that They get to where they don’t even here God’s voice. When they finally wake up, they find out that it is too late. This is what happened in our Bible story today, the story about a rich man and Lazarus.
This parable reveals a great spiritual truth about what really matters in life. Today Lazarus and the rich man are sending us wake up alarms. Lazarus tells us “what matters is that when we are emotionally and mentally ‘attached’ to our possessions, we don’t understand what’s important”. We are invited to be detached from things of the material world; not only physical possessions but also base emotional and mental possessions such as superiority, depression, bigotry, anger, immaturity, pessimism, closed-mindedness, lustfulness and fear. Ideally we align ourselves with the “things” of the spirit. Then we could have all the material possessions we want but we wouldn’t be attached to them; and if we lose them we would still be centered in our connection with the spiritual.
The rich man tells us “what matters is that God won’t grant our requests if we don’t actively engage in our own conversion. God doesn’t give the rich man the two things he is asking for because, the rich man is distant from the divine due to his attachment to the material world and he also lacks compassion toward Lazarus during their lifetimes. The gap is not closed by simply a direct granting of the requests, rather the rich man must make an eff ort to understand how to be generous, compassionate and aligned with the spirit and thereby close the gap on his own.
Terry Pratchett in his fantasy novel book, A Hat Full of Sky, writes: “Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.”
God is still sending “wake up” calls to us today to close the gaps that prevent us from being better, from doing good. Let us pray that we will listen to his voice and follow him, to go away and come back before it is too late. When God sounds the alarm he is telling us it is time to wake up and follow Him. May we never be guilty of hitting the snooze alarm saying, “Later, Lord.” Instead, let us rise up and follow Him.
- Fr. Sonny de Rivera, SVD | Rome, Italy
The Word in other words 2016
An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.
