Luke 16:19-31; 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

In today’s parable, the rich man has no name. Right there and then we sense from his namelessness that he might be someone less than a person, someone heartless, without remorse. He is not known to God.

The poor man has a name, even while he was full of sores, languishing at the gate of the rich man’s house. His name is Lazarus. He is known to God. Now he is there in the bosom of Abraham, while the rich man is in the netherworld, in torment.

There is a wide chasm that separates the rich man and Lazarus. From Father Abraham who speaks to the rich man, we learn that the gap is so unbridgeable as “to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.”

This is deeply concerning. We thought that the border between heaven and hell is made porous by God’s mercy. After all, isn’t purgatory about second chances?

And yet from the parable we know that the rich man and his brothers were indeed given chances. “They have Moses and the prophets.” They’ve had the scriptures, the tradition, and all this time, even while “lying upon beds of ivory, stretched comfortably on their couches”. They’ve had all the means and warnings impressed upon them.

You sense exasperation and sadness in Abraham’s voice: If they will not take all these second chances at redemption, “neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.” To them this parable, or even God, is just a fairytale. They will not change even if told that their life of wealth and luxury is not all there is to life, or that this is just the start of our long journey to eternity.

Let us be clear. The offense of the rich is not in being wealthy. Some may have even worked hard and honestly to get to where they are now. Their most grievous fault is their complacency, their indifference to the poor who are suffering just outside their gate. That gate separated them from those who could only eat from the scraps that fell from their tables, and yet by their failure of mercy, they created an unbridgeable chasm between them and the Lazaruses of this world.

It is this failure of mercy that is unforgiveable. This is the grievous fault that makes the chasm unbridgeable.

Kaya hindi ko sasabihing “mahiya naman kayo”. Uulitin ko lamang ang malaon nang ipinahahayag ng mga propeta, pati na ng ating Panginoon sa mga maykaya: maawa naman kayo. Maawa kayo sa mga naghihirap.

To this day, as it was in the time of Jesus, people still think of wealth as a sign of God’s blessing, and poverty as a sign of being forsaken by God. Jesus upends all that and by his story today tells us that if poverty is a sign, it is a sign of being forsaken by those who have been blessed much in this life.

There is nothing the matter with wealth except to say that compared to those who have less, the rich run the greater risk of their hearts turning cold and numb in this life and even after. Today’s parable is anything but subtle about those with wealth and power. Today God warns us to come to our senses and turn from our callous ways.

Let us pray for our nation these days as we go through this period of cleansing. You do not have to be a climate scientist to know that year after year, the wind and rain and floods will come like clockwork, with even greater ferocity. Best to prepare by building our house on rock and not on sand.

That means building our nation on leaders who are selfless, those who have the common good, not their families or dynasties, foremost in their minds and hearts. That entails personal conversion of all of us, especially of those already in power. It also demands drastic changes in our culture of feudal and dynastic patronage that has kept our people poor for so long. That means waking up to our civic duty and responsibility to make our voices heard especially on behalf of those who continue to languish outside our gates. This time of cleansing requires critically examining and dismantling the social pressures and structures and habits that turn good people into bad.

To those who lead us, those to whom we have given the power to serve us, please heed the cry of Lazarus while you still have your name and are known to God. Turn to the poor of our land, para na ninyong awa, before the chasm becomes unbridgeable.