Deacon Tom Anthony

Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 138

Reading 1 Am 6:1a, 4-7

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 Ps 146:7, 8-9, 9-10

R. (1b) Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
Blessed 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 1 Tm 6:11-16

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 Cf. 2 Cor 8:9

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 Lk 16:19-31

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,

 There are a lot of distraction in the world today and a lot of things that are competing for our attention. So many people and situations demand our attention and deciding what is truly important can be a difficult task. When one thing is focused on there will undoubtedly be something else that will suffer because of a lack of attention. In situations such as these the physical attractions and that which stimulate our senses can easily take precedent over other things that can ultimately be of more importance especially in regards to our spiritual well-being and relationship with God. Also, that which is directly in front of us can easily be interpreted as the thing that is of priority and of the most important instead of what  really is which  because it is the newest thing presented. This can put our spirituality at a disadvantage because it is linked with things beyond this physical world and can be hidden front our view; out if sight and out of mind.

The truth is that our spiritual health can affect our mental and physical well-being. It can also clear away a lot of confusion that has been created by the demands put on time. When we focus on Jesus Christ the challenges that we face and the situations we are presented with tend to diminish in their complexity. Things that once baffled us in their difficulty are revealed as being simple and easily resolved for nothing in this world compares to He who created it in the first place. We have the greatest advocate in Jesus Christ and he is ready and willing to intercede on our behalf to bring to resolution those things which confound us. Spiritual solutions are the best solutions and always bring about a positive influence because they have their roots in that which is the perfect good and originate from God. Without the influence of God there emerge competing powers and influences that were previously suppressed by the presence of God. These powers have their origins in the purely physical and it is actually us who give them strength when we ignore God. When we hand over everything to God we actually are taking control of these situations more than we even know.

When we place value on physical thing then the rewards will all be physical. When we invest our time and efforts into physical things then the goals that we work towards will be physical in nature. The pleasures that we receive from them will stimulate us in much the same way. It is impossible to achieve spiritual fulfillment on physical things so even the satisfaction that we obtain from these things will come and go, leaving us empty and unfulfilled. This is the situation that the rich man in Jesus’ parable found himself in. He lived a life full of pleasure and amassed a great amount of material wealth but ended up with less than Lazarus because what Lazarus had was that which did not expire: faith, hope, and love. Lazarus, who appeared to have less, actually had more even in his physical life for the suffering he experienced in the moment could never compare to the joy he was experiencing in eternity. One of the lessons taught through Lazarus’ story is that suffering and having less in this life offers on opportunity to see through the illusions of the physical world and reveals what can be experienced through a relationship with God. Nothing in this world can compare to what is offered by God: true joy and love.

Between the rich man and Abraham was a massive chasm which was impossible to cross. The chasm was not placed there by God but was created by the rich man’s relationship with God which was completely lacking. Through all of our actions and choices we are either digging our own chasm or filling it in depending on what we are focusing on. There will be times when God is helping us with the heavy lifting and at other times we are pushing Him away, choosing instead to dig deeper. When we dig it represents a focus on physical labor and things of the material world. The further we go down, the harder the work becomes. It is so much easier to fill in the hole with God’s help then to continuously cut into the hard earth and heave the dirt over our shoulders. We are alone in that affair in comparison to when we plow the earth back into the hole with God being the bulldozer.

The Prophet Amos was a shepherd when he was called to the prophetic office. Having nothing, he condemned the people of the Northern Kingdom for turning away from God and condemned their leaders for abandoning their relationship with God. Through Amos God described their focus on the pleasures of the moment taking precedent over that which was important in life: a relationship with God. We too are warned that if we embrace that which gives us pleasure in the moment we will be leading ourselves to our own destruction. God has no hand in this because He is the one who delivers the warning of the consequences of our actions. He pleads for us to listen and offers us the solution to our problems but it is ultimately us who need to respond. We can be like the rich man who knew better but did not heed the wisdom given or we can be like Lazarus who maintained his relationship with God regardless of what he faced in life. Joy cannot and should not be based on what is gathered in a material sense but what is gained spiritually. That which is gained materially eventually rots away while that which is spiritual lasts forever.

Deacon Tom