September 28, 2025
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.'"
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/092825.cfm
Commentary on Amos
6:1,4-7: 1 Timothy 6:11-16; Luke 16:19-31
To some people, the story in
today’s Gospel may seem quite unfair. A successful man, indicated by the
prosperity of his surroundings, is buried in hell. A snivelling beggar, who may
have never done a day’s work in his life, ends up in Abraham’s bosom. Is this
Christian teaching?
To understand this story properly
may involve a radical change in the way we—and the society we belong
to—normally think. And, importantly for those who wish to be truly Christian,
it will involve learning some of the values of Jesus, and of the gospel.
We live in a world which praises
achievement and has little time for failure. It starts right in kindergarten
with the very first school report. We live in a society which says people
deserve everything they are able to work for and acquire. The materially
successful (and in our society is there any other kind of success?) are
sometimes heard to say that, if anyone else did what they did, they could be
billionaires too. The emphasis is not on what people are, but what they can do
and on what they can acquire with what they do. Sadly, how they get it or what
the consequences may be for others is sometimes not regarded as of great
importance.
Another distortion
For us Christians, often as deeply infected with these ideas as anyone, there
is another distortion as well. Our way of living our faith can be very
individualistic and self-centred. The emphasis is on personal salvation
(‘saving my soul’) and that is achieved by being a morally good person.
‘Morally good’ means avoiding actions which are ethically wrong, such as
failing to worship God in the ‘official’ way, committing violent actions
against others, behaving in a sexually immoral way (we coyly use the word
‘impure’), stealing things from people, gossiping maliciously about others,
being jealous, envious, angry, resentful and so on. Seldom in confession do
people say: “I was not a loving person”, but that they broke rules and
disappointed themselves. Seldom do people confess the harm that their sins
caused in others. I have never heard a person confess to cheating on taxes,
although this is one of the chief ways in which people fail to express
solidarity for the less well-off in their community.
As long as I am not aware of doing
any of these things, or at least, not doing them in a serious way (‘mortal’
sin), then I am a ‘good’ person and, if I am a Catholic, then I am ‘quite a
good’ Catholic (no need to exaggerate!).
However, this is not really the
picture that the Gospel today describes. If we were to base our judgements on
the above image of the ‘good Catholic’, then there was really nothing much
wrong with the rich man. All he did was to enjoy his wealth and his good food,
his big house, his fashionable and expensive clothes. He did not seem to do any
harm to the poor man. He did not drive him away or use abusive language towards
him. The rich man was, in fact, quite ‘charitable’. The poor man was welcome to
any of the (surplus) food that fell from the table.
The rich man (and some of us) might
ask why the poor man did not just get up and see a doctor about those ulcers on
his leg, and then go and do a proper day’s work. We have no idea how the rich
man became rich. Perhaps he was born into a rich family and inherited his
wealth; perhaps it was the result of working long hours over many years. Why
should such a man be punished? And, even more strangely, why should the beggar
be rewarded?
Why love the poor
Someone has said that God loves the poor, not because they are good, but simply
because they are poor—where ‘poor’ means deprived of what is necessary to live
a fully human life.
Can we say also that God does not
love the rich, not because they are bad, but simply because they are rich? Does
one hear cries of “Unfair!”? “What’s wrong with being rich? Everyone wants to
be rich and prosperous.” “Just look at the number of people buying lottery
tickets every week!” “The rich are people too; they have souls.” “I thought God
loves everyone without exception.”…and so on.
But is it so unfair? Who is really
being unfair? What does ‘rich’ really mean? Indeed, that rich man in the
parable may have worked very hard to get his money. Perhaps he was a good
family man who loved his wife and was a good father to his children. Perhaps he
went faithfully to the synagogue every Sabbath and observed all the regulations
of the Sabbath day. He may have been seen as a very pillar of his community.
Yet, as long as that poor man lay uncared for at his feet, the rich man was
totally condemned.
Why was he condemned? Because he
did not know what justice means. He did not know what love means. He did not
know what a truly human society means. He did not know what religion means. And
perhaps there are thousands of us just like him in the Catholic Church here and
all over the world.
Of course, one may say to oneself:
“Jesus is not talking about me. I could not be regarded as rich. I am just a
tax-paying fixed salary earner.” No, but is such a person looking anxiously to
move in the direction of wealth? Does such a person dream of striking it big on
the national lottery? Does one dream of finding a short cut to making a killing
on the stock exchange some day?
Relativity of wealth
As an individual in our society, I may not (yet) be regarded as rich and we all
belong to a society which is regarded as prosperous today. But like most other
rich communities, we are living in a society where wealth is very unevenly
divided. There are many social problems in our midst affecting both rich and
poor. Every social problem is a form of deprivation, a denial of full human
living, and hence poverty, in gospel terms.
How aware am I of these problems?
How aware am I that I am somehow responsible for their elimination? What, in
practice, am I contributing to the removal of these problems? Being a
personally ‘good Catholic’ is hardly enough.
Again, a lot of our community’s
wealth comes from buying and selling to countries of the Third or developing
world, where millions continue to live in poverty. Would we dare to say that
there is no exploitation going on in our trading practices—perhaps by the very
company I work for or companies whose goods I buy? How come our society
continues to grow in prosperity while theirs goes deeper and deeper in debt? Is
it really only a question of mismanagement or corruption or ‘laziness’ on their
part?
The rich countries sit at their
groaning table in purple and silk, with champagne and caviar, while the poor,
covered in the wounds of deprivation and exploitation, are shut out. We
constantly pat ourselves on the back and look forward to the day when our
material standard of living reaches that of the richest countries. Is that what
we really want to aim at?
Excuses too late
The rich man made the excuse (when it was too late) that he did not realise
what was going on. His brothers (also rich?) did not realise either. Let them
be warned, he pleaded. Even in hell, the rich man could still only think of his
own family and not of all the others to whom he was responsible.
It would be no use warning them,
Abraham said:
If they do not listen to Moses and
the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the
dead.
Ironic words indeed. Jesus has been
risen from the dead for more than 2,000 years, and how many of us have taken in
the message of the Gospel about wealth and poverty? Sadly, not a great many, it
must be said.
The table with food
One final point. Central to the story is the table laden with food. This is
both the symbol of the Kingdom and also points to our Eucharistic table, which
we dare to approach every Sunday. If we saw our Sunday Mass in terms of today’s
Gospel reading, we might be more hesitant. We might be less smug about sharing
the food of the Lord’s table.
The rich man made no move whatever
to share what he had at the table. He could have done so at either of two
levels. First, he could have seen to it that the poor man had enough to eat and
he might even have gone further and ‘donated’ medical treatment. This is the
level of ‘charity’, the level most of us feel good about doing. But it is not
yet the gospel.
In the second level, neither of the
men can be regarded as rich or poor. They sit down together at the same table
and they give and receive and share on a footing of equal dignity the meal and
the food. It is quite irrelevant whether one of them is more intelligent, more
active, more enterprising, more healthy. What is important is that each cares
deeply for the other and sees that the needs of each are taken care of with the
resources available. Strangely enough, the poor are usually much better at that
than the rich—which makes one wonder, who in the world are the really rich,
enriched and enriching?
Comments
Off
https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/oc261/
Sunday,
September 28, 2025
Twenty-sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, send your Spirit to help us to read the Scriptures
with the same mind that you read them to the disciples on the way to Emmaus. In
the light of the Word, written in the Bible, you helped them to discover the
presence of God in the disturbing events of your sentence and death. Thus, the
cross that seemed to be the end of all hope became for them the source of life
and of resurrection. Create in us silence so that we may listen to your voice
in Creation and in the Scriptures, in events and in people, above all in the
poor and suffering. May your word guide us so that we too, like the two
disciples from Emmaus, may experience the force of your resurrection and
witness to others that you are alive in our midst as source of fraternity,
justice and peace. We ask this of you, Jesus, son of Mary, who revealed to us
the Father and sent us your Spirit. Amen.
Gospel Reading - Luke 16: 19-31
A Key to the Reading:
In this 26th Sunday of Ordinary
Time, the Liturgy places before us the parable of the poor Lazarus, sitting
before the door of the rich man. This parable is a faithful mirror, in which is
mirrored not only the situation of the society at the time of Jesus, but also
our society of the XXI century. The parable is a strong and radical
denunciation of this situation because it clearly indicates that God thinks
contrary to that. In the parable there are three persons: the poor man, the
rich man and Father Abraham. The poor man has a name but does not speak. He
hardly exists. His only friends are the little dogs which lick his wounds. The
rich man does not have a name but speaks always and insists. He wants to be
right, but he does not succeed. Father Abraham is the father of both of them,
and loves both, and he calls the rich man who is in hell, but he does not
succeed in obtaining that the rich man changes opinion and converts himself.
During the reading try to be very attentive to the conversation of the rich man
with Father Abraham, to the arguments of the rich man and to the arguments of
Father Abraham.
A Division of the Text to Help in the
Reading:
•
Luke 16: 19-21: The situation of both in this
life
•
Luke 16: 22: The situation of both in the other
life
•
Luke 16: 23-26: The first conversation between
the rich man and Abraham
•
Luke 16: 27-29: The second conversation between
the rich man and Abraham
•
Luke 16: 30-31: The third conversation between
the rich man and Abraham Text:
19 'There was a rich man who used
to dress in purple and fine linen and feast magnificently every day. 20 And at
his gate there used to lie a poor man called Lazarus, covered with sores, 21
who longed to fill himself with what fell from the rich man's table. Even dogs
came and licked his sores. 22 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. 23 'In his torment in Hades he looked up and saw Abraham a long way
off with Lazarus in his embrace. 24 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." 25 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. 26 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." 27 'So he said, "Father, I
beg you then to send Lazarus to my father's house, 28 since I have five
brothers, to give them warning so that they do not come to this place of
torment too." 29 Abraham said, "They have Moses and the prophets, let
them listen to them." 30 The rich man replied, "Ah no, father
Abraham, but if someone comes to them from the dead, they will repent." 31
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."
A
Moment of Prayerful Silence
so that the Word of God may penetrate and enlighten
our life.
Some Questions
to help us in our personal reflection.
•
Which point of the text pleased you most and
what struck you most? Why?
•
Compare the situation of the poor man and of the
rich man before and after death. Which is their situation before death? What
changes in the situation of the poor man and of the rich man after death?
•
What separates the poor man from the rich man
before death? What separates the rich man from the poor man after death?
•
In the conversation between the rich man and
Father Abraham, what does the rich man ask and what is the response of Abraham?
•
In this parable, the situation changes only
after death. Would it be that Jesus wants to tell us that during life the poor
have to bear everything in order to be able then, to merit Heaven? What do you
think?
•
There are some persons who, like the rich man of
the parable, expect miracles in order to be able to believe in God. But God
asks to believe in Moses and in the Prophets. And I, toward which side does my
heart tend: toward the miracle or toward the Word of God?
•
How do I treat the poor? For me, do they have a
name?
To Deepen the Theme
Context:
In the Gospel of Luke, from
Chapter 9 (Lk 9: 51), we are accompanying Jesus on his journey toward
Jerusalem. Here in chapters 15 and 16, as to say, we reach the summit, the
center of the journey, from where it is possible to see the road that has
already been covered and that which still has to be covered. Or, that is, that
on the summit of the hill, or in the center of the Gospel, we perceive with
greater clarity the two principal themes which go through the Gospel of Luke,
from one end to the other. In chapter 15, the parable of the father with his
two sons reveals to us the tenderness and the mercy of God who accepts all. Now
chapter 16 presents to us the parable of the poor Lazarus to
reveal the attitude that we should have before the problem of poverty and of
social injustice. Every time that Jesus has something important to communicate,
he narrates or tells a parable, he creates a story which mirrors the reality of
the people. Thus, during the reflection on visible reality, he leads those who
listen to discover the invisible appeals of God, present in life. A parable is
made to make people think and reflect. This is why it is important to be
attentive even to small details. In the parable on which we are meditating, there
are three persons. Lazarus, the poor man, the only one who does not speak. The
rich man without a name, who speaks to ask. Father Abraham, who, in the
parable, represents the thought of God- The rich man without a name represents
the dominating ideology of the government of the time. Lazarus represents the
excruciating cry of the poor at the time of Jesus, of the time of Luke and of
all times. Commentary on the Text:
•
Luke 16: 19-21 - The situation of the rich man
and of the poor man.
Here we have the two extremes of society. On the one hand,
the aggressive richness. On the other the poor without any resources, without
any rights, covered with ulcers and wounds, impure, with nobody to accept him
to receive him, except the little dogs which lick his wounds. What separates
both of them is only a door: the closed door of the house of the rich man. On
his part there is no acceptance, no pity for the problem of the poor man who is
before his door. But in the parable, the poor man has a name, while the rich man
does not. The name of the poor man is Lazarus, which means God helps.
Through the poor God helps the rich and the rich man could
have his name written in the Book of Life. But the rich man does not accept to
be helped by the poor man, because he continues to keep the door closed. This
beginning of the parable which describes the situation, is a faithful mirror of
what happens in the time of Jesus and of Luke. and it is also the mirror of
what happens today!
•
Luke 16: 22 - The change revealed by the truth
which was hidden
“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 the parable, the poor man dies before the rich man. This is a
warning for the rich. Up to the time when the poor man was before the door,
alive, it is still possible for the rich man to be saved. But after the poor
man dies, the only instrument of salvation for the rich man, also dies. Today,
millions of poor people die, victims of the geopolitics of the rich countries.
The poor man dies and is carried away
by the angels into Abraham’s embrace. The embrace of Abraham is the source of
life, from where is born the People of God. Lazarus, the poor man, belongs to
the People of God, forms part of the People of Abraham , from which he is
excluded because he was at the door of the rich man. The rich man who thinks
that he is a son of Abraham, he also dies and is buried. But he does not go
toward the embrace of Abraham, because he is not a son of Abraham!
The introduction of the parable ends here. Now begins the
revelation of its meaning, through three conversations between the rich man and
Father Abraham.
•
Luke 16: 23-26 - The first conversation between
the rich man without a name and Father Abraham
The parable is like a window which Jesus opens for us on
the other side of life, the side of God. It is not a question of Heaven. It is
a question of the true side of life discovered only by faith and that the rich
man, without faith does not perceive. The dominating ideology prevents him from
discovering it. And it is only in the light of death that the ideology
disintegrates itself in the mind of the rich man, and that the true value of
life appears to him. On God’s part, without the ideology and the deceiving
propaganda of the government, their lucks will be changed: The rich man
suffers, the poor man is happy. The rich man, in seeing Lazarus in Abraham’s
embrace asks that Lazarus gives some relief to his suffering. In the light of
death, the rich man discovers that Lazarus is his only possible benefactor. But
now it is too late! The rich man without a name is a Jew (or Christian)
“pious,” knows Abraham and calls him Father. Abraham responds and calls him
son. That means that, in reality, this word of Abraham is addressed to the rich
who are alive. In so far as being alive, they also have the possibility of
becoming sons of Abraham, if they open the door to Lazarus, to the poor man, to
the only one who in God’s name can help them. For the rich man, closed up in
his suffering, salvation consisted in a drop of water which Lazarus could give
him. In reality, for the rich man, salvation does not consist in that Lazarus
gives him a drop of water to refresh his tongue, but rather, that he himself,
the rich man, opens the closed door of his house and enters into contact with
the poor man. It is only in this way that it will be possible to overcome the
great abyss which separates him.
In Abraham’s response, the truth of the four curses appears
before the rich man: (Lk 6: 24-26). But alas for you who are rich: you are
having your consolation now. Alas for you who have plenty to eat now: you shall
go hungry. Alas for you who are laughing now: you shall mourn and weep. 'Alas
for you when everyone speaks well of you! This was the way their ancestors
treated the false prophets.
•
Luke 16: 27-29: The second conversation between
the rich man and Abraham
The rich man insists: “Father, I beg you then to send
Lazarus to my father’s house, since I have five brothers!” The rich man does
not want his brothers to suffer the same torment. “Send Lazarus!” Lazarus, the
poor man, is the only true intermediary between God and the rich. But the rich
man, during his life was not concerned for the poor Lazarus. He is concerned
about himself and of his brothers. He was never concerned about the poor! It is
like the older son of the “Parable of the Father with two sons” (Lk 15: 25-30).
The older one wanted to have a feast with his friends, and not with his brother
who had been lost. Abraham’s response is clear: “They have Moses and the
prophets; let them listen to them!” They have the Bible! The rich man had the
Bible. He knew it even by heart. But he never became aware that the Bible had
something to do with the poor who were at his door. The key to understand the
sense of the Bible and of salvation is the poor Lazarus, sitting at the door of
the rich man!
Extending the information:
Because of the unjust social context at the time of Jesus:
In the year 64 B.C. the Romans invaded
Palestine and imposed upon the people a very heavy tax. The scholars estimate
that more or less half of the family income was destined to pay the taxes, the
taxes of the Roman Government. Besides, Rome made a geopolitical reorganization
in the region. Before the
Roman invasion, the whole region, from Tyre
to Sidon up to the frontier with Egypt, was governed by the Asmonei, the
prolongation of the Maccabees. After the invasion, only three regions remained
under the government of the Jews: Judea, Pereira and Galilee. In order to be
able to maintain the control on dominated peoples with a minimum of sacrifice
and at their own expense, the Romans were the Saducees, the elders, some
publicans and part of the priests. Thus, all this change brought about by the
Roman invasion caused almost all the Jews who were living in the other
territories of that region to migrate toward Judea and Galilee. The consequence
of this: the population was doubled in Judea and in Galilee and the family
income diminished by half. The result: on the one hand, progressive
impoverishment, unemployment, begging, extreme poverty. On the other,
exaggerated enrichment of the local population, supported by the Romans. The
faithful picture of this situation is expressed in the parable of the poor
Lazarus and of the rich man who had no pity. Final Reflection around the parable
The rich man who has everything and who closes himself up in
himself, loses
God, loses the richness, loses life, loses himself, loses his
name, loses everything.
The poor man who has nothing, has
God, gains life, has a name, gains everything. The poor man is Lazarus, he is
“God helps.” God comes to us in the person of the poor man sitting at our door,
to help us overcome the insurmountable abyss created by the rich who have no
heart. Lazarus is also Jesus, the poor Messiah and servant, who was not
accepted, but whose death radically changed all things. And in the light of the
death of the poor man, everything changes. The place of torment is the
situation of the persons without God. Even if the rich man thinks that he has a
religion and faith, he does not know how to be with God because he does not
open the door to the poor man, as Zacchaeus did (Lk
19: 1-10).
Prayer of a Psalm
Psalm 15 (14): Yahweh, who can find a home
in your tent?
Yahweh, who can find a home in
your tent, who can dwell on your holy mountain?
Whoever lives blamelessly, who acts uprightly,
who speaks the truth from the
heart, who keeps the tongue under control, who does not wrong a comrade,
who casts no discredit on a
neighbor, who looks with scorn on the vile,
but honours those who fear
Yahweh, who stands by an oath at any cost, who asks no interest on loans,
who takes no bribe to harm the innocent. No one who so acts
can ever be shaken.
Final Prayer
Lord Jesus, we thank for the word that has enabled us to
understand better the will of the Father. May your Spirit enlighten our actions
and grant us the strength to practice that which your Word has revealed to us.
May we, like Mary, your mother, not only listen to but also practice the Word.
You who live and reign with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit forever
and ever. Amen.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét