Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time Többet
Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
First Reading
Amos 6,1.4-7
Disaster for those so comfortable in Zion and for those so confident on the hill of Samaria, the notables of this first of nations, those to whom the House of Israel has recourse! Lying on ivory beds and sprawling on their divans, they dine on lambs from the flock, and stall-fattened veal; they bawl to the sound of the lyre and, like David, they invent musical instruments; they drink wine by the bowlful, and lard themselves with the finest oils, but for the ruin of Joseph they care nothing. That is why they will now go into captivity, heading the column of captives. The sprawlers' revelry is over.
Psalmody
Psalm 145
Antiphon
Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
My soul, give praise to the Lord;
I will praise the Lord all my days,
make music to God while I live.
Put no trust in princes,
in mortal men in whom there is no help.
Take their breath, they return to clay
and their plans that day come to nothing.
He is happy who is helped by Jacob's God,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
who alone made heaven and earth,
the seas and all they contain.
It is he who keeps faith for ever,
who is just to those who are oppressed.
It is he who gives bread to the hungry,
the Lord, who sets prisoners free,
the Lord who gives sight to the blind,
who raises up those who are bowed down,
the Lord who protects the stranger
and upholds the widow and orphan.
It is the Lord who loves the just
but thwarts the path of the wicked.
The Lord will reign for ever,
Zion's God, from age to age.
Second Reading
1 Timothy 6,11-16
But, as someone dedicated to God, avoid all that. You must aim to be upright and religious, filled with faith and love, perseverance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith and win the eternal life to which you were called and for which you made your noble profession of faith before many witnesses. Now, before God, the source of all life, and before Jesus Christ, who witnessed to his noble profession of faith before Pontius Pilate, I charge you to do all that you have been told, with no faults or failures, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who at the due time will be revealed by God, the blessed and only Ruler of all, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, who alone is immortal, whose home is in inaccessible light, whom no human being has seen or is able to see: to him be honour and everlasting power. Amen.
Reading of the Gospel
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Yesterday I was buried with Christ,
today I rise with you who are risen.
With you I was crucified;
remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Luke 16,19-31
'There was a rich man who used to dress in purple and fine linen and feast magnificently every day. And at his gate there used to lie a poor man called Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to fill himself with what fell from the rich man's table. Even dogs came and licked his sores. Now it happened that the poor man died and was carried away by the angels into Abraham's embrace. The rich man also died and was buried. 'In his torment in Hades he looked up and saw Abraham a long way off with Lazarus in his embrace. So he cried out, "Father Abraham, pity me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these flames." Abraham said, "My son, remember that during your life you had your fill of good things, just as Lazarus his fill of bad. Now he is being comforted here while you are in agony. But that is not all: between us and you a great gulf has been fixed, to prevent those who want to cross from our side to yours or from your side to ours." 'So he said, "Father, I beg you then to send Lazarus to my father's house, since I have five brothers, to give them warning so that they do not come to this place of torment too." Abraham said, "They have Moses and the prophets, let them listen to them." The rich man replied, "Ah no, father Abraham, but if someone comes to them from the dead, they will repent." Then Abraham said to him, "If they will not listen either to Moses or to the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead."
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Yesterday I was buried with Christ,
today I rise with you who are risen.
With you I was crucified;
remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Homily
The Gospel parable of poor Lazarus is a direct reminder of the cruelty of this world of ours: there are many who, clothed in purple and byssus, feast lavishly and fail to notice the countless poor Lazarus lying abandoned at their doorstep. Their cruelty seems even more bitter than that of the rich man in the parable. How can we fail to notice the harsh words of the prophet Amos: "Alas for those who are at ease in Zion, ... Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory, and lounge on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock ... drink wine from bowls, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!" The evangelist does not mention the name of the rich man as if to suggest that indifference is the name that unites all the carefree egocentricities of this world. Pope Francis, in Assisi, at a meeting of religious leaders said: "The great disease of our time is indifference. And it is a virus that paralyses, makes us inert and insensitive, a disease that erodes the very centre of religiosity, generating a new and very sad paganism: the paganism of indifference." Yes, the indifference of that rich man, the indifference of so many rich people today is a sign of paganism, of the presence of the diabolical force that destroys. Indifference is the exact opposite of God, who is the friend of mankind, the friend of the poor, the defender of the weak, the philanthropist. God disregards the rich man, while he calls by name the poor man covered in sores who stands at the door with only dogs at his side. But God is moved and stands beside Lazarus and saves him.
The Gospel page suggests that indifference seems to prevent even God from overcoming the abyss that human beings dig around themselves. It is a severe warning: those who build their lives only for themselves, in reality build their own hell.
But there is the warning of the rich man as he fell into torment. It is a cry that seems like a desperate prayer, a stern warning to the other brothers. At last, one might say, the man has remembered others. And he seems to cry out with an excess of false severity. In any case, it is an exhortation not to waste the time of one's life and to take advantage of mercy, to avoid creating chasms between people and to multiply the effort to fill them. Abraham replied to the worried rich man: "They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them." There are no extraordinary events to be performed. We have been given the Word of God. Listening to it is the task of believers to convert their hearts. And the wisdom of the Church will repeat it to us also on the last day when we will receive our last farewell before our journey into heaven: "May the angels accompany you into paradise, and may the martyrs welcome you when you arrive, and may you and Lazarus, poor on earth, enjoy paradise with Abraham."
Prayer is the heart of the life of the Community of Sant'Egidio and is its absolute priority. At the end of the day, every the Community of Sant'Egidio, large or small, gathers around the Lord to listen to his Word. The Word of God and the prayer are, in fact, the very basis of the whole life of the Community. The disciples cannot do other than remain at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary of Bethany, to receive his love and learn his ways (Phil. 2:5).
So every evening, when the Community returns to the feet of the Lord, it repeats the words of the anonymous disciple: " Lord, teach us how to pray". Jesus, Master of prayer, continues to answer: "When you pray, say: Abba, Father". It is not a simple exhortation, it is much more. With these words Jesus lets the disciples participate in his own relationship with the Father. Therefore in prayer, the fact of being children of the Father who is in heaven, comes before the words we may say. So praying is above all a way of being! That is to say we are children who turn with faith to the Father, certain that they will be heard.
Jesus teaches us to call God "Our Father". And not simply "Father" or "My Father". Disciples, even when they pray on their own, are never isolated nor they are orphans; they are always members of the Lord's family.
In praying together, beside the mystery of being children of God, there is also the mystery of brotherhood, as the Father of the Church said: "You cannot have God as father without having the church as mother". When praying together, the Holy Spirit assembles the disciples in the upper room together with Mary, the Lord's mother, so that they may direct their gaze towards the Lord's face and learn from Him the secret of his Heart.
The Communities of Sant'Egidio all over the world gather in the various places of prayer and lay before the Lord the hopes and the sufferings of the tired, exhausted crowds of which the Gospel speaks ( Mat. 9: 3-7 ), In these ancient crowds we can see the huge masses of the modern cities, the millions of refugees who continue to flee their countries, the poor, relegated to the very fringe of life and all those who are waiting for someone to take care of them. Praying together includes the cry, the invocation, the aspiration, the desire for peace, the healing and salvation of the men and women of this world. Prayer is never in vain; it rises ceaselessly to the Lord so that anguish is turned into hope, tears into joy, despair into happiness, and solitude into communion. May the Kingdom of God come soon among people!
