9/29/2013 - 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Luke 16:19-31

      Last Friday, we celebrated the feast day of St Vincent DePaul.   He was a priest who was born in France more than 400 years ago.  But, even to this day, he is remembered for his compassion, his humility, and generosity, so much so that many Catholic parishes throughout the world have Societies of St Vincent DePaul that serve the poor and the needy.  St. Vincent de Paul taught that true charity does not only consist of distributing alms & giving out financial assistance, but rather of helping the poor feel the fullness of their human dignity and freedom.   He also taught that our good works must never be separated from our faith, but rather must flow out of our faith.  Thus, St Vincent DePaul counseled, that to be men and women of action and good works, we must also be men and women of prayer and deep spirituality.  He advises us: “You must have an inner life, everything must tend in that direction. If you lack this, you lack everything.”  St Vincent DePaul touched people’s lives by his witness of faith.  The way he empowered the laity, and his work with abandoned children, prisoners, victims of catastrophe and natural disaster, refugees, and the homebound was considered groundbreaking in its day, and has had a profound affect on how many charitable organizations and governmental agencies approach such issues today. 

      I was reminded of St Vincent DePaul when I heard today’s Gospel. Lazarus might be the type of person who would have gone to St Vincent DePaul for help.  In the Gospel, Lazarus was alone on the streets: hungry, homeless and sick.  There's a lot we don't know about Lazarus.  Was he was an alcoholic, a drug addict, or mentally ill?  Was he injured or too sick to work?  Was he down on his luck or had he been laid off from his job?  Had he recently been released from prison, or was he just not able to pull himself up by his bootstraps to find a better place in life?  

     We don't know those facts about Lazarus – ultimately, this doesn’t matter to the moral of the story.  We do know that Lazarus was poor, that he lived right outside the gate of a rich man who had wealth in abundance.  The rich man dined as if every day were a banquet; he wore clothing colored with a very expensive purple dye; he lived in a grand estate enclosed by a gate that was meant to keep people like Lazarus out of sight.  Lazarus was always at that gate – he was part of the rich man's daily scenery. Even though he was always present, Lazarus was invisible to the rich man who had more important and pressing matters on his agenda.

      By their very nature, Jesus' parables can take very shocking twists and turns – they're designed to wake us up out of our complacency, to show us how God's kingdom is so different from the ways of the world.  In eternal life, the rich man is in agony and torment, he is the one in need.  He wants Lazarus to bring him a cool drink to refresh him.  It never crosses his mind the times that he could have brought refreshment to Lazarus when both of them walked the earth. He could have thrown Lazarus scraps from his scrumptious meals, but never did. Maybe the rich man went to the synagogue each day, maybe he tried to be an observant Jew, but if he did not have charity and mercy in his heart and in the way he lived out his life, what did his faith really mean to him? 

      We can reach out to other people in a lot of ways.  The charitable work we do as a parish is an important part of who we are as Catholics. It seems like everyone is talking about the interview that Pope Francis gave to America magazine.  One of the most strident critics of the Catholic Church who writes for the New York Times praised Pope Francis for his humility, his meekness, and for his honesty in saying that sometimes he has been rash in his judgments, and that sometimes we in Church leadership need to listen to the wisdom of our flock.  The writer said for that someone to wear the miter of the Bishop of Rome and to not have the power go to his head is truly a revelation.  The rich man in the parable today showed arrogance and self-centeredness.  Pope Francis calls us back to the teachings of Jesus, to the values that St Vincent DePaul lived in his life, to have a heart for the poor and to be humble witnesses to the Gospel of Jesus by the way we live our lives.  The writer in the New York Times, Frank Bruni, heard Pope Francis invite people to follow Jesus, to become disciples of Christ with us in the Catholic Church.  Pope Francis invites people with quiet dignity and respect.  He does not command them or order them.  Hopefully we can allow follow these examples in the way we live out our lives.