Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 138
Reading 1
Thus says the LORD the God of hosts:
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!
Improvising to the music of the harp,
like David, they devise their own accompaniment.
They drink wine from bowls
and anoint themselves with the best oils;
yet they are not made ill by the collapse of Joseph!
Therefore, now they shall be the first to go into exile,
and their wanton revelry shall be done away with.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (1b) Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
Blessed is he who keeps faith forever,
secures justice for the oppressed,
gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets captives free.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD gives sight to the blind;
the LORD raises up those who were bowed down.
The LORD loves the just;
the LORD protects strangers.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
The fatherless and the widow he sustains,
but the way of the wicked he thwarts.
The LORD shall reign forever;
your God, O Zion, through all generations. Alleluia.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2
But you, man of God, 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.
I 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.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Though our Lord Jesus Christ was rich, he became poor,
so that by his poverty you might become rich.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to the Pharisees:
"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 rise from the dead.'"
MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,
We are all faced with choices in our lives. It is unavoidable that some of the things we decided upon will eliminate other choices in the future. With each decision comes a sacrifice of some other sort. For example: If we choose to eat three blueberry muffins for breakfast, we will sacrifice good health and a well-balanced diet in exchange for the enjoyment of something that we know is not good for us. We will also possibly surrender our good health and our fitness as a result, if we continue to choose the former over the latter. So it goes with smaller choices and bigger ones. Each one has the possibly of a positive or negative effect on us. Making matters worse, even though we may think that we are making the best choice possible for our benefit, it may be revealed at a later time that, in fact, it wasn’t a good decision at all.
There are many things in this world that offer us comfort, enjoyment, and satisfaction. Our physical senses are indeed attuned to the physical world and are designed to react to stimuli when they are used. So, we are more apt to be attracted to physical things that make us feel good. Indulging in these things may feel pleasurable but can also cause us great harm, especially when used too often and not for their intended purpose. They then become luxuries. The pleasure center of the brain reacts to these things, demanding more stimulation and pleasure. When we find ourselves living without them, our brain then rebels against us, demanding the absent feelings that gave it so much enjoyment and satisfaction. Our body is also compelled to react to the lack of these things and we may even find ourselves in physical pain as a result. We start to obsess about acquiring what we need, telling ourselves that what we seek is actually good for us, when indeed we just might be pursuing something that could then turn into an addiction.
Absent from all of these scenarios, not surprisingly, is God. When He is not the driving force in our lives, others things will take over. There will be a void, a space, which was initially reserved for God. When there is a void where God should be, other things will pour in to fill the deep, dark hole that was supposed to contain all that makes us whole: our spirituality and the presence of God. This is what happed in the Kingdom of Israel and what Amos was prophesizing about. The country had gone astray. No longer was it following God’s precepts, but instead following its own course based on its current prosperity and the availability of material things. I feel there can be commonality formed between the state of the people of Israel during the time of Amos and us many times in our lives. Many of us have a precondition to indulge in the pleasures of the flesh and abuse the prosperity that abounds around us. The answer to life for many people is to continuously have more and more things used specifically to give pleasure. The more these things are indulged in, the less familiar we become to God and the Christian way of life.
There are three parts of every human being: physical, mental, and the spiritual. If we focus intently on physical things and fil all of our earthly desires, the mind will follow. It will obsess about these things and seek them out continuously. The spirit is then neglected and left in a pitiable state, unable to help us recover from what could easily turn into a desperate condition. If we focus on the mind and use the gift of intellect correctly, then we can focus on wisdom and a proper decision-making process which will lead us to the spirit and will balance out our physical temptations, which will then bring our entire being into balance. If we put our spirituality first and let God lead us, the mind and body will follow in complete harmony. Paul gives the proper advice on what we should be doing on a daily basis:
…”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.”
Righteousness comes from God. Everything good has its origin the ultimate good, which is God. All these other things, faith, love, patience, and gentleness will come to us as a result. The alternative is to ignore God now and focus on the physical things of this world, becoming the fool, darting about from one shallow experience to another, all the while trying to fill that dark hole which we created in the first place. We cannot remain blind like the rich man who ignored the duties of His faith in favor of living a lecherous lifestyle that included not denying himself anything that he wanted. This just leads to physical, mental, and spiritual destruction. The key is to keep focus on God and the dogma of our faith, which includes life everlasting with our Lord and God. We must understand that we have a choice and have always had it: What do we focus on in our daily lives? We should focus on acting out our faith-life by walking with Jesus Christ, performing the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy as He instructed us to do We should also focus on prayer and worship. These things will guarantee a life full of satisfaction and acceptance.
Anything that differs from God’s will brings about a destruction of the self. God does not want this for us. That is not the reason why we were created. We were created out of love to love and to be loved. Choices based upon material gain and material indulgence goes against God’s will. And where has that gotten us so far in this life. Nowhere fast.
Deacon Tom
