Monday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Saint Katherine Drexel

Lectionary: 347

Who in the nether world can glorify the Most High
in place of the living who offer their praise?
Dwell no longer in the error of the ungodly,
but offer your praise before death.

 E cclesiasticus (Sirach) offers a useful meditation today, comparing the state of the damned to the saved. 

As a chaplain in the VA hospital I found few patients, in hospice or anywhere else, who showed any curiosity about the afterlife. The septuagenarians and octogenarians more often expressed satisfaction with their life and experience. They had seen and accomplished enough; they had run the race and did not fear death. 

The Divine Authors, however, were more curious about the afterlife. Especially after their Hellenistic oppressors had savagely murdered faithful Jews, they believed that God would certainly deliver the martyrs into eternal bliss while their tormentors would suffer forever the pain they had so gleefully inflicted. 

Jesus's parable of the rich man and Lazarus reflected that conviction, although the rich man had not intentionally hurt the poor man. His indifference to the suffering that lay just beyond his front door was enough to condemn him to Hell. He had never invited Lazarus to pass over the chasm between them in life; and God's judgment made it impassable. Nor could anyone endure the flames of hell to carry a drop of water to the damned. 

That chasm has not disappeared since the first century. I know little of finances and the economy but I suppose that there is a continuous, unbroken flow of currency from the Roman Empire to today's international banking. Money may come in many different denominations but its worth and usefulness endures; and people make it work even as one government collapses and another appears. The wealthy class sustains its wealth even as some individuals go bankrupt and die in poverty. And the poor remain, along with the injustice and violence that accompany poverty. 

From the earliest days of the Old Testament, God had taught and Jesus insisted, "It shall not be like that among you."

Jesus summoned them and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt.

But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.

Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20: 25-28)

The Lord's challenge remains despite the intractability of injustice. Every generation is charged with the duty to bridge or narrow the chasm, allowing the free flow of services to the needy, regardless of their worth in the eyes of the world. If his eye is on the sparrow, it is certainly concerned for the poor.