21st Sunday after Pentecost

 (Luke 16:19-31)

The Gospel for this Sunday tells us the story of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man had every luxury and his table was overflowing with feasts every day. At the same time, there was a poor and sickly beggar named Lazarus, who sat in misery at the gates of the rich man’s house in hope of some small scrap from the rich man’s bounty. Sadly, the rich man was a stranger to compassion and love – which is simply another way of saying he was a stranger to Christ our God.

Both men soon died… Lazarus was taken up to heaven, to the bosom of Abraham, and the rich man, having made himself a stranger to God, found himself in the torments of hell. After such a life of importance and wealth, the rich man takes nothing of his luxuries beyond the grave and history does not even remember his name! The rich man was permitted to see the reward of Lazarus and he called out to Abraham that Lazarus might be permitted to come and offer him some small consolation in his suffering. But the rich man was reminded that during his earthly life he had his reward and consolations and Lazarus had nothing and was shown no mercy. Now in the afterlife the rich man found himself in torment while Lazarus was comforted. And, it is added, between the place of the rich man and the place of Lazarus there was a ‘great gulf’ such that none could pass from one place to another.

So the rich man begged that Lazarus might go to his earthly relatives to forewarn them of the realities of the spiritual life and the life beyond the grave. But Abraham rebuked him saying that they have Moses and the prophets, yet they do not heed the word of God. The rich man emphasizes that if someone were to miraculously return from the dead, that then the worldly-minded would awaken and hear God’s word. Abraham replies, that even if one were to rise from the dead, they would not be persuaded to change their ways.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ!... This Gospel message speaks directly to our hearts! We live in the wake of One Who has indeed risen from the dead. Christ has risen from the dead and yet we must ask ourselves: do we live as if it were truly so? Do we heed the word of God and the good news of the Gospel? Do we understand the reality of our spiritual life and the eternal life of the soul?

So often, we resemble the rich man in today’s Gospel – estranging ourselves from God and allowing ourselves to be seduced into a kind of blindness to the deeper and eternal realities of our existence. We become so easily preoccupied with the things of this world and we react to the circumstances of our earthly life as if this is all there is…

Our Lord asks us: ‘What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?’ Today’s Gospel parable is a vivid illustration of the tragic consequences of a man who allows the cheap treasures of this world to eclipse the eternal treasures of God.

Let us take the message of today’s Holy Gospel to heart… Let us make sure we do not find ourselves in the position of the rich man – who so preoccupied himself with his worldly interests that he cut himself off from God and was thus blind to the cries of others and to the voice of his conscience.

We must strive at all times to live our life in the context of eternity, in the knowledge and awareness of the One Who has risen from the dead. Remembering God at all times is one of the surest ways to refrain from sin and to not deaden ourselves to the needs of others.

Cultivating an active awareness of the presence of God is essential if we are to live our lives with our spiritual eyes open. How will we treat each other if we’re aware that we are in the presence of God? How will we treat our spouse, our children, our co-workers, our fellow parishioners? How will we behave in all aspects of our life if we’re aware that we are in the presence of God? How will we speak and act and think if we realize that we are in the presence of God at all times?

May God grant us the wisdom and blessing of cultivating this conscious sense of His presence at all times and may this awareness keep us from temptation and draw us closer in compassion and love to God and to one another.