In Luke Gospel Chapter 10, Jesus is asked “what is the most important commandment?” He responds that the greatest commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” and the second to “love your neighbor as yourself”. The individual attitudes demonstrated in today’s readings is nowhere close to obedience to these commandments. In the Gospel there is the rich man dressed in purple garments and fine linen and who dined sumptuously each day, unmindful of the sad flight of the poor man Lazarus lying at his door and neglecting to serve his need. Likewise in the first reading the same attitude of indifference and complacency towards the poor is displayed by the leaders of the people living in luxury.
Today the first reading and the Gospel try to teach us to care about what happens to others. It is a teaching that all of us need to hear from time to time. We want to follow Jesus Christ and we want to learn to live as He lived. Jesus Himself teaches us that the greatest commandment is to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. How we live now has consequences for all eternity. In the Parable about the Rich Man and Lazarus, Jesus warns us against the sin of omission committed. In the final judgment, the question will be on how we have responded to the commandment of love. At the end of the day, the question is about the good things we should have done: did we feed the hungry? Did we give drink to the thirsty, clothing to the naked and welcome to strangers? This is well illustrated in the parable this Sunday – there was no mention about the rich man being unjust or dishonest, and yet he was condemned to hell because he did not attend to the needs of Lazarus at his gates. Simply avoiding evil is not enough. We are expected to bear abundant fruits of love, kindness, mercy and generosity towards our brothers and sisters in need.
Christian life consists in actively following Jesus. There is no room for complacency, passivity and negligence. We have to heed St. Paul’s admonition to “pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience and gentleness.” We have to always keep in mind the lesson of the parable, that doing nothing for our brothers and sisters is actually inflicting irreparable damage to our eternal future. The mandate to love God and our neighbor to obey and serve is now and not later. St. John appropriately poses the question – how can you say you love God whom you do not see when you do not love your neighbor whom you see. Indeed, our love of neighbor is a shadow of our love of God.
By Deacon Mar Tano
26th Sunday in Ordinary Time: A Reflection