Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 78

“Blessed are you who are poor,for the kingdom of God is yours.

....woe to you who are rich,for you have received your consolation."

 I've got good news and bad news. The Good news: the Lord God will bless us abundantly. The Bad News: the Lord God will punish us severely. That's not very funny, is it? But, as we hear in today's gospel, it is a constant message of the Bible.

A society of consumers loves to hear about blessings, opportunities, rewards, and free gifts. They don't want to hear about penalties, repayments, reparation, atonement, debts, or curses. They're assured and persuaded by eager banks and merchants that unfortunate consequences can be forestalled, cancelled, and forgotten. God won't let bad things happen to us because God loves us and is always so nice to us.

God speaks in today’s Sunday readings to a severely polarized nation – a nation of consumers – about blessings and curses. There is something unnerving about the God we meet in the Bible and in our Catholic religion. He speaks the truth, and he doesn’t always tell us things we want to hear, or reassure us with promises of endless happiness. The God who can see the future as clearly as he sees the past guides us with promises and warnings. But we don't always receive his blessings with recognition or gratitude, and we often ignore his warnings. And then we blame him for the terrible things that happen. 

I knew a man who worked continually, travelling non-stop to give speeches and meet with people. He was doing good work! His doctor warned him about his high blood pressure and lack of exercise, but he was too busy to take care of himself. When he finally suffered a debilitating stroke he complained that he'd never been warned. Like many people, he was a good speaker but a poor listener. 

The philosopher John Macmurray taught that our life as responsible persons begins when we notice there are other persons in the world. One day a child has a quarrel with his mother. But then, perhaps on the same day, he says to himself, “She was right. I wanted to do something and she would not let me do it, and she was right!” 

There are other people in this world! And most of them have more information, different experience, and better wisdom than I have. And I would do well to listen to them, to work with them, to join and work in the company of others. 

And not only are there other people: in fact, there is a God who created this world, and these people and me. And my life is about the Greater Honor and Glory of God; and not all about me! “Well I'll be damned!”

No, you won't be damned if you see other people and care more about them than you care about yourself. And you won't be damned if you act justly, love tenderly, and walk humbly with your God. 

The Bible and our Church teaches us that there is an otherness in Reality – in Being – and we must learn to recognize the existence of the other, like the child who finally discovers his mother. 

That means no one is exactly like you or me; and even if you had a clone that person would not be you. The entire universe with its gazillion galaxies and stars has never seen anything precisely like you, nor will you ever happen again. You are alone in your existence, as I am, as is everyone else. 

Our Testaments Old and New tell us repeatedly we must care for the widow, the orphan, and the alien; and my first obligation is to others and not to myself. The Bible says I must answer to The Other who is God and has authority to create, heal, guide, rebuke, condemn, and save me. When God says, “Who are you to judge your neighbor?” I realize I’d better shut up and pony up support for aliens, orphans, and widows. 

But the United States has become a nation of aliens. Polarized, we despise everyone who is not like "me." Everyone who has a different opinion, idea, or belief; everyone who votes differently, looks differently, or comes from a different place. 

The chasm that Lazarus could not cross grows deeper every day. God warns us of these things in today's gospel:

...woe to you who are rich,

for you have received your consolation.

Woe to you who are filled now, 

for you will be hungry.

 

Inflamed by propaganda, the satisfied and the hungry; the comfortable and the stricken, the religious and the irreligious are more estranged to one another every day. They fear, distrust, and hate one another. And as Abraham Lincoln said, a house divided cannot stand. 

Nothing can be gained by quarreling, despising, distancing, judging, or hating. Nobody wins; but everyone loses, especially the widow, the orphan, and the alien – and that will not stand in God’s sight.

The day must come when I say to someone I despise or fear,

“You are right, and I have been wrong. You see the truth and I have not seen it. You have done right, and I have not. Thank you for showing me what I could not see.”

When that day comes the Lord might say to me what he said to a hostile scribe, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.”