"Hear the Word!" by Bill Ayres: Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

A reading from the book of Amos
(Chapter 6:1a, 4-7)
 
Amos is condemning the rich and powerful in the Northern Kingdom of Israel just before they are invaded by the Babylonians and sent into exile, roughly 800 years before the birth of Jesus. Amos blames the elite for their uncaring and unjust lifestyle and declares, “Therefore, they shall be the first to go into exile.” In the next century the rest of Israel, the Southern Kingdom, would be captured by the same nation and sent into the infamous Babylonian Exile. These are all dim historical memories for us, but they had a devastating effect on the Jewish people for generations.
 
What is the warning for us? After all, we are the most powerful country in the world. The lesson is the same for us as it was for the Israelites. Despite our power and wealth, our leaders and all of us need to take care of those in need, not in a condescending way but with a real feeling of brotherhood and sisterhood. That is why our parish ministries are so important not only for those we serve but also for those who serve.
 
Responsorial Psalm
(Psalm 146:7, 8-9, 9-10)
 
“Praise the Lord my soul!” Praising the Lord may be the least practiced prayer of many of us, as opposed to prayers of petition. It can go right along with thanking God for all we are and all we have been given.
 
A reading from first Letter of Saint Paul to Timothy
(Chapter 6:11-16)
 
Timothy had accepted the call from God through Paul to preach the Good News of Jesus, the unconditional love and mercy of God that comes through Jesus. Paul wants to make sure that Timothy not only preaches this loving message but that he himself lives it with all those qualities: righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience and gentleness. Imagine if those who preached and taught and led our Church throughout history did so with all or even most of those qualities. There would not have been any inquisitions that brutally murdered thousands of innocent people, or religious wars that killed millions, and hundreds of millions who left the Church in anger and hopelessness. But that was the past. It need not be the present or the future as Pope Francis opens his arms to all who may feel they are outcasts and offers hope and God’s merciful love.
 
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke
(Chapter 16:19-31)
 
The Pharisees were often depicted as “those who loved money.” So this is the audience that Jesus addresses, and he tells a parable about a rich man who in life did not care at all for the poor man, Lazarus, who “would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table.” After the rich man dies, he is in a place of torment and wants out. He asks Abraham, the father of the Jewish people, for help for himself and his five brothers. He never admits he is wrong, never asks for forgiveness. He simply wants to make a deal with Abraham.
 
Over the years, people have asked if hell is real and, if so, who is there since God is all-loving? Here, Luke gives us an example of hell. The rich man does not get out of hell in this story, because he never asks for forgiveness, never admits his sins.
 
God's offers kindness and forgiveness to us throughout our lives. It is never too late for repentance, but it is possible for a person to refuse God’s love and mercy. We have had examples of mass murderers in our lifetime. Are they in hell? Perhaps, but that is not our business. What is our business is to proclaim God’s merciful forgiveness to all we know, especially those who may seem to have missed this most important message of all.
 
Excerpts from the English translation of the Lectionary for Mass © 1969, 1981, 1997, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation (ICEL). All rights reserved.
 
Bill Ayres was a founder, with the late singer Harry Chapin, of WhyHunger. He has been a radio and TV broadcaster for 40 years and has two weekly Sunday-night shows on WPLJ, 95.5 FM in New York. He is a member of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church in Centerport, New York.