We bring whatever concerns and cares, whatever
sorrows or joys, whatever confusion and troubles,
we bring them with us as we gather. But what's
the providential word from God? St. John says
that he wrote all those words so that by hearing
them we will believe, and by believing we will
have life. So what's the providential word that
will give us life today, even accounting for
my halting and inarticulate expression? We bring
whatever concerns we have. But what specific
thing about this parable today, in this time,
in this place, are we being given by God? The
Lord is trying always, but especially at the
gospel, to get our attention. Like a young child
with his parent. Dad, Mom, look at this, look
at this, come here, come here, come here. Parents,
you know how sometimes we just say, oh, I'll
be there, son, daughter, in a moment. And then
we miss the moment. So God's tugging on our shirt.
He's tugging on your sweater. Pay attention.
Look. Listen. There's a story that you've probably
heard me tell before. It's a famous story about
C .S. Lewis. Maybe we could remember this story
when we go to the mall, we go downtown. and we
encounter someone asking for the morsels that
fall from our table, spare change as we might
call it. I remember the words of C .S. Lewis
when he was rebuked by a friend for giving spare
change to a beggar. The friend said to C .S.
Lewis, that bum is just going to use the money
you gave him to buy beer. And C .S. Lewis responded
by saying, well, that's what I was going to use
it for, too. This story is not just about charity.
It's a very deep parable, and it goes in every
which way direction. It's spinning towards us
all the time. It's a very difficult parable.
It's not what we maybe want to hear. A dysfunctional
family with five brothers and one that just died
and went to Hades. Wealth that isn't shared.
Poverty that isn't noticed. The voice of God.
Father Abraham, anyway. If anyone has the world's
goods, material blessings. You see, this isn't
about wealth. condemning wealth if anyone has
the world's goods and sees his brother or sister
in need yet closes his heart against him how
does god's love abide in him so this parable
is really about god's love and our gratitude
and our capacity to love with the love that god
has given us yes we give to the poor because
we're going to help them But that's because we
see the image of God. That's because we're grateful
for the riches, the riches that God has given
us. Purple and fine linen, nothing. Look at what
I have. Sumptuous feast. Brothers and sisters,
what will we partake of? So many riches are given
to us. But what were the concerns of this rich
man? And maybe, you know, when we look at this
parable, we try to see ourself in there. Not
the Lazarus character. I'm certainly not Father
Abraham. What does that leave? What were the
concerns of the rich man? They were the ordinary
concerns that people have all around. Do not
be anxious. about what you eat or what you drink
or what you wear. Don't be anxious about these
things. He thought of nothing of the next life
or the coming judgment. As far as he was concerned,
he had to answer to no one but himself, and he
was concerned about feasting sumptuously, it
says, every day. He was a man of routine. He
lived, as the text says, every day, dressed marvelously,
feasting sumptuously. And he tended not to notice
insignificant things, insignificant things around
him, such as a man starving at his doorstep.
Some years ago, I was coming and going in my
car, Todd Road Highway, passing Tower Mart or
Power Mart or whatever it was called at the time.
And I had to go in to get gas or, you know, potato
chips or whatever, you know, that I like. And
there was a man at what used to be a bus stop
there. And he was sitting on the bench, and it
was a bus stop cover, and he was slumped over.
And I went in, went out, I saw him. Drove out,
came back, saw him. Drove out again, saw him
again. He was still slumped there. The next day
I read in the paper that he had died that morning,
probably sometime after I was there. We tend
to not notice what is not significant to us.
I think the pain of the rich man in Hades was
that he could see Lazarus in Abraham's bosom
far off. And he realized, like I am realizing
now, what I could have done for this man. This
rich man now knows that things that appeared
to be small there in the next life became things
of significance. Little things such as crumbs
that fall from the table or a drop of water on
the tip of a finger. That man now saw as very
huge. He now sees that poor, weak, sick man is
really a person of consequence. We had the Divine
Liturgy yesterday, Memorial Divine Liturgy. Hundreds
of names were read commemorating them of the
departed. Hundreds. This man has no name. in
the story. What does that tell us? This sick
man, the poor man, was a man of consequence.
The man of power of this world. The man of sumptuous
living. That's not going to bring us anything,
brothers and sisters. And the deep and fiery
pain of understanding and that being revealed
to him in Hades. It's not something you and I
want to encounter. There's a chasm between Father
Abraham, he says, and this man. And it didn't
appear all of a sudden at death as some kind
of punishment. It's already described there at
the beginning of the parable, isn't it? The rich
man creating a chasm with his selfish way of
life and his ungodly use of wealth because there's
a godly use of wealth too. and he was blind to
poor Lazarus, he may have been on the other side
of the Grand Canyon. There's a great gulf fixed,
and this man can no longer do what he wants.
The whole of his life, and let us examine our
own, the whole of this man's life was moving
towards that chasm. He put it together. He made
his own prison. He's the creator of that Hades.
Father Patrick Reardon wrote this. He said, that
man spent a lifetime becoming accustomed to sin.
Not sins of commission. All of them were sins
of omission, what he had not done. When we come
to confession, most of us look at the sins that
we have committed. And this is good. But what
about the sins of omission? This man became habituated
to the absence of God, and he did not see, because
of that, the presence of the image of God in
poor Lazarus. And he lived each day as there
were no God, and that he had no moral responsibilities
in the world. Like me, just driving by, a man
slumped in a bus stop. It turns out that morality,
or the lack of it, is not the main message here.
Taking care of the poor, as essential as that
is, and as important as that was for the people
of the church, of the early church, and throughout
history. Think of St. Basil. I think of the orphanages,
the hospitals, the schools, the poorhouses, the
workhouses. all the way up to the time of St.
John of Kronstadt, all the way up until our present
day of the monastery of St. Elizabeth in Minsk.
We Orthodox in this country have been identified
by polls and surveys as the richest Christians
of any Christian in this country. Yet we don't
have one hospital. Orphanages are found in Guatemala,
not here. Maybe it's a little more complicated
now for us, considering social restrictions.
Schools, forget it. Catholic charities, taking
care of the poor. God will reward them. What
about us? So this parable isn't about just that.
It's something deeper. The parable is really
about me or you, an allegory of your soul, of
my soul, the soul starving and poor and wounded
like Lazarus, begging at the gate of life for
illumination from God, for God's mercy, for some
prayer, for some charity to give to others. for
some vigils, for some scripture, for contemplating
the resurrection. The feasting and purple and
fine linen of the parable refer to the way I
pamper my appetites while refusing to give any
notice to my soul. Sure, we come to church, but
this is just to feed us, to launch us out to
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and etc. so our soul
will shine. Let us not starve at the gate spiritually.
How do I digest this story? God did not speak
just a long time ago. He speaks now. What did
Abraham say to the man? Your brothers, they have
the law and the prophets. And even if someone
should rise from the dead, they will not believe.
We have... our Lord Jesus Christ risen from the
dead. We will partake of his risen body and blood.
We have the scriptures. Let us not find ourselves
on the other end of that chasm, either in this
life or in the life to come. How long will God
give us? As long as we have breath and we have
life, God has given us a chance to repent, to
pray more. to take care of our charitable concerns
and responsibilities, to gather more for worship,
to discover his word and his instruction and
his life -giving help in the scriptures. We have
the resurrection and the scriptures. What else
do we need? The Lord has blessed us richly. Let
us give thanks to him in honoring our Lord. now
and ever, to ages of ages. Amen.