Dives and Lazarus - 26th Sunday Ordinary Time

DIVES AND LAZARUS - The Parable for All Seasons (Twenty-sixth Sunday, 25 September, 2022)

Are some of Jesus' parables more relevant to our situation today than others? It's probably a stupid question to ask since they are all important in one way or another, but it has a point. Pope St John Paul II believed that today's parable speaks more directly to our time than any of the others. And he was right, given the state of the world we now inhabit.

Did you know that $1.90 per person per day is now the threshold for extreme poverty, a standard adopted by the World Bank to reflect the minimum consumption and income level needed to meet a person's basic needs? That means that people who fall under this poverty line - 1.4 billion people or one-sixth of the world's population - cannot fulfil basic needs, whether it means eating only one meal a day or receiving healthcare.

It's clearer now than ever before that the rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer. The richest 1% now have as much wealth as the rest of the world combined, and the 62 richest people in the world apparently have as much wealth as the poorest half of the global population. So this parable certainly has relevance.

Lazarus spent his life in abject poverty at the doorstep of Dives (Latin for 'rich man') but eventually found comfort resting in Abraham's bosom. Dives, by contrast, spent his earthly life in considerable comfort and security, but found only suffering in the next. He was the only one who could have changed the status of both but chose not to do so.

It stands as one of the hardest readings in scripture. I don't like its scalding message and frightening implications. By ignoring the suffering of those around us, we ensure the early and unjust death of the poor in the here and now and our own suffering in the next life. And to make matters worse, God is on the side of the poor, noting the callous indifference of the rich and powerful.

But what can any of us do about such a situation and how can we make a difference? Not a great deal is the obvious answer; but there is something we can all do even if it doesn't amount to much in the overall scale of things. As the saying has it: charity begins at home and real politics is always local. So we can look out for those in our communities who are in need. We can also support those agencies and organisations which have the professional expertise required. More importantly, we can stop voting for politicians and parties whose political philosophy is based on maintaining the existing status quo - thereby making a mockery of the gospel's message of good news for the poor!

Luke concludes his account of the "good news" by announcing that Jesus has risen from the dead. To accept this message means to heed the warning of Dives: to feed the poor and needy in our midst and stop the culture from killing them. If we let the risen Christ touch us with his compassion, then we will become people of the resurrection, people who oppose the forces of death that oppress people and render them destitute.

The hope of the Resurrection is what helps us make sense of this parable. We, too, will die one day, like Lazarus and Dives. So what we do and how we behave in the here and now matters hugely. In a very real sense, the outcome is in our own hands. The Ancient Greek philosopher Socrates once made the same point when he said that people normally win the kind of eternity for which their lives prepare them. There can be no better summary of what this parable is all about.