September 26, 2010
Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ
Woe to the complacent in Zion…Lying upon beds of ivory, stretched comfortably on their couches, They eat lambs taken from the flock, and calves from the stall. Therefore, now they shall be the first to go into exile, and their wanton revelry shall be done away with. Amos 6:1a, 4,7
“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 rise from the dead.'" Luke 16:30-31
Piety
The Lazarus story too often is treated as a good story. It is always something happening to anther until the day comes that the person is knocking at our door. All too often I find myself treating the beggar as a stranger. You are not my problem I am saying to myself. How did you get to my door? Piety is the eagerness of my heart to give a welcome to Christ. Christ has promised to come to us in every stranger that touches our lives. He says it simply. “When I was hungry you gave me to eat. When I was thirsty, you gave me to drink.” I catch myself trying to hide from The Christ who appears in my life as the least of all my would-be friends. I have seen what I was like when the President of the United States was coming to supper. I was dressed in the best of my clothes. I was like a little child who is so nervous that he is quiet beyond all belief. I did not speak until I was spoken to. Again and again because I am a priest, I have been hit on for a quick fix by people of all kinds. Lazarus was the perfect down and out person. Would I have truly given to Lazarus any more than the rich man of the Gospel? The heroes of my life do just that. They do not give from the extras of their life. They give from the necessities of their lives. My heroes treat the least persons of their lives as if they were Christ.
Study
I think about the poor people who have come to me for help. I have wanted to treat them as Christ. I have experienced trying to treat them as Christ. I might even give more than is expected of me by the beggar. But I have seen how I treat people who are important in the eyes of the world. I have given up my room for my boss. I have shared the best of what I have with people that I love in my family and without. But the catch when I study my behavior is in the truth that I am not really treating the needy person as Christ in what they need from me. The effort to see beyond appearances is helped by prayer. But it is the experience of reaching out to a poor person that seems unworthy of help that teaches us what we are doing for Christ.
Action
I am not going to do for anyone more than I intend to do. I need to plan my behavior with the poor and to reach out again and again to practice what I preach in how I help the poor. A few moments spent with a poor man or women make it hard to just walk on by. Acknowledging a person by looking them in the eyes takes away all the rote behavior in what I do. Looking the person in the eyes allows us to see their hearts and to realize better how much more we can help. We help the poor best when we look them in the eyes to see the Christ that would live in them with a little help of ourselves. Taking an extra moment with a poor person makes a Christ moment out of what we are doing. Giving until it hurts makes real the Christ we would be in his name.
