I have to say that when I read this gospel and started doing some research at one point I got really scared. I’ve since calmed down, but there’s no question that this parable can be challenging for us middle-class Americans. I’m going to share a few comments about the gospel and then talk about how the message applies to us.

First the context. A few verses before this parable is the end of last week’s gospel which ends with ‘you cannot serve both God and mammon.’ The next verse in the Bible, which we didn’t read, says: “The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all these things and sneered at him.” Then, comes today’s reading which is directed to the Pharisees. So, it’s directed to those who love money.

This parable is the only parable where one of the principal characters is named. In all the other parables, Jesus uses generic names like a rich man had a steward, or a father had two sons, and so on. But here, the poor man is named Lazarus. One thing that is very interesting about this is that in the parable, the rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his brothers – he says if Lazarus were raised from the dead, they would listen, and Abraham says no, if they won’t listen to Moses and the Prophets, they won’t listen even if someone is raised from the dead. In John’s gospel, a man named Lazarus is raised from the dead and not only do the Pharisees not listen, they want to kill him.

Another point about this parable is what is not said about the rich man. It doesn’t say that he stole, or murdered anyone, or committed adultery, or even broke the sabbath. He might have kept the commandments. Today we might say, well, I didn’t kill anyone. I’m not a Hitler. In other words, I’m basically a good guy. The rich man could say the same thing. He even seems to show some compassion for his brothers when he asks Abraham to warn them. But he still ends up in hell. Why? And this is the point of the parable.

This man was extremely wealthy. He dressed in purple garments which only the extremely wealthy could afford. He dined sumptuously each day. Again, extremely wealthy, and self-indulgent to the extreme. Lazarus is ill, he has sores, and he’s starving. He would have been very happy to eat the scraps that fell off the rich man’s table. The rich man did absolutely nothing for him. He knew him, he calls him by name when he speaks to Abraham, but he didn’t even give him the scraps that fell off his table. He had become so completely self-absorbed that he couldn’t even do that.

That’s the warning – love of money can lead us to become totally focused on ourselves. I was just listening to an interview where Ben Shapiro is interviewing Matt Walsh. Matt Walsh you may know as the guy who did a video titled ‘what is a woman’? Any way they’re discussing religion and Matt Walsh said something that really struck me. Ben asked him about heaven and hell, and Matt responded that it’s hard for us to imagine anyone choosing hell. Right. Look, here’s this place of eternal torment. Ooh, ooh, sign me up.  But what we can imagine is a person choosing himself or herself over God.  Love of money can take us there. That’s the warning.

And we all have to deal with this to some extent. Our 2^nd reading begins “But you, man of God, … do this”. The word “but” indicates a reversal of thought because immediately preceding this, St. Paul warns Timothy about love of money, and he calls the love of money the root of all evil. So, it affects us all. For some it could be just an occasional temptation but for others it could be a real issue.

Okay, so how do we know. My first suggestion is – ask your spouse, or someone who is close to you. I did this, sort of. I asked my wife Joni what was my predominant fault – we both learned about this from Dan Burke so I asked her. And she said what are the 3 options again. I said it’s pride, vanity, and sensuality. She said, well, it’s hard to say, you have all 3. ☹

Your spouse will tell you. So, ask your spouse, or someone who knows you well, because we can easily deceive ourselves, and often times what’s obvious to others, we don’t see.

Here’s a few indicators that we might need to work on this:

• Are we tight-fisted?
• Do we use fraud or falsehood in order to acquire more money?
• Have we run up a large credit card debt for unnecessary stuff?
• Do we spend an inordinate amount of time playing the markets or shopping online?  

If we think we do need to work on this, the key to change is to choose the opposite; choose love, choose generosity, choose service, choose Jesus. We can’t just deny ourselves. That won’t work. We’re attracted to the comfort, the pleasure, the security, that money gives us. We need to be attracted to the opposing virtue – generosity, liberality. And in my experience, what will generally attract us to make a change is when we see something in somebody else that we like.

For example, several years ago, I was taking a class and the instructor was a Teaching Assistant who was working on his doctorate. He was married and I think his wife was working for some apostolate. He shared with us one time that they tithed, they gave 10% of their net income away. And it just really hit me – this guy’s making squat, and his wife can’t be doing much better, and they’re tithing! So, I spoke with Joni, and it took a little while, but we started tithing.

Another example. One time Joni and I went on a short trip to Miami to visit our pseudo-adopted daughter Tierney. And a friend that Joni had met, who was also very close to Tierney, went with us. I was very much struck by how careful and responsible she was with money. She found a good discount for the hotel room, she was careful about where we got our food, she was really a model to me of being a good steward. And again, it just made a big impact on me. Here’s a person who has more money than me and yet was more careful than I was in her spending. So, I’ve tried to change and become more like her.  

The bottom line is we want to choose Jesus, and His way. I remember when I was in college taking an Economics class and the professor was talking about all different kinds of investments, and he said all these things are good, but when it comes to feeling secure and a peaceful night’s sleep, there’s nothing like having a big fat pile of cash. And I get that. I think we all understand that. But Jesus is better. There’s more security in Him. No matter what the world throws at us: the economy crashing, another pandemic, Putin threatening to go nuclear – no matter what, Jesus is bigger, and He can’t be taken away. Money can be taken away, not Jesus.

So, brother and sisters, let us choose Jesus, let us choose generosity. And let us give cheerfully, no matter the amount, for in so doing, we are living as sons and daughters of our heavenly Father.

God Bless you, Deacon Bob