26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel Bullet Points (Luke 16:19-31) THE PARABLE OF THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS

• The parable in today’s gospel is about a rich man and Lazarus. When these two die, the rich man goes to hell; Lazarus to heaven.
• The rich man does nothing intrinsically evil. He lives like a rich man that he is, wears fine clothes, and throws a sumptuous feast each day. He neither causes nor kicks Lazarus when he passes him at the gate. He does not tell his servants to drive Lazarus away.
• The rich man lives his earthly days in abundance, and his sin is that he ignores Lazarus. He does not lift a finger to help the man. He tells none of his servants to give the man food or drink. The sin of the rich man was not that he did wrong things, but that he did nothing to help the suffering Lazarus lying in his doorway. He did not reach out in mercy. He was focused on himself and forgot Lazarus, the poor man at his gate.
• The rich man may well be any of us. We tend to focus only on our own concerns. Though someone’s need is already staring us in the face, we do not feel compelled to do anything. We can be just self-centered. And if we tend to be more focused on ourselves, consumed with selfish pleasure, we now strive to be focused on God. Then abundant blessings will follow.
• Today’s gospel does not tell us to do anything spectacular for other people. We do not have to buy the homeless a house or give the hungry a food allowance for life. We are not expected to do anything out of the ordinary. Rather, we are asked to be there for someone who needs us.