September 26, 2010: 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our challenge is to see AND live as God would have us see AND live.

Jesus said to the Pharisees: “There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, full of sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried.” (Luke 16:19-22)

This is a short excerpt from today’s much longer gospel (Luke 16:19-31).
Jesus often taught by telling stories called parables.
According to Webster’s dictionary a parable is “a simple story told to illustrate a moral truth.” What is the moral truth in this story? God sees things differently than we do. Our challenge is to see and live as God would have us see and live. God desires that all the good things in this world be shared by all people. We often hear “the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.” We have a task as Christians: to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor.

Action:

In one way we are like the rich man. We have a so much compared to many other people in our world. If the story is about sharing the blessings of earth, what can you do? Where can you start?