In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Glory be to Jesus Christ.
Well, welcome to all of you on this beautiful,
sunny California morning. I hope you got here
without having gotten too wet, or having car
trouble, or whatever it might be. But God has
brought us together in the joy of this community
Eucharistic celebration. Today we have that parable
we hear it every year, the rich man and Lazarus.
Lazarus, the poor man and the rich man who didn't
care about him. It occasionally happens that,
and I invite you to do this, if you read over
the gospel before you come to church or the night
before, take a look at the verses right before.
or right after the gospel selection. Because
sometimes they have an interesting clue on how
we should understand this gospel passage. And
that's the case today. Because two verses before
this gospel begins in verse 16, we have verse
14, which tells us, Jesus addressed the Pharisees
who were fond of money. Okay, so this is addressed
to Pharisees. And I think Pharisees in the broadest
possible term to those who are complacent, proud
of themselves, look down upon others who are
callous and greedy. Faults that were typical
of... the collective word Pharisee, but all those
faults we share in one degree or another at one
time or another. So with this in mind, this gospel
is also very characteristic of St. Luke's style
and also his selection of the miracles and the
stories that he relates to us. Because St. Luke
is particularly attentive to how Jesus treats
the poor people. The collective term for poor
people in Hebrew is the anawim. And the anawim
are poor, underprivileged, sick, the little people.
The nobodies, so to speak. The nobodies in society.
These are the ones Jesus is concerned about.
The anawim, the poor, and then also women. Notice
he spoke recently about the story of the widow
of Nayan and her only son that she was going
to be out to bury her. Publican and the Pharisee
is another example of that. The publican, maybe
he wasn't poor in wealth, but he was poor in
spirit. The Pharisee looked down on him. Who
else? The widow, the woman who was bent over
and had scoliosis. The woman who had the flow
of blood and just went to touch the hem of his
garment. So these are illustrations about how
St. Luke is attentive to Jesus' concern for the
poor. Not necessarily poor in wealth or in spirit.
Sometimes those who are poor in wealth are rich
in spirit. But I think this is very well illustrated
to us. In one of the Antiphon Psalms that we
sing each and every Sunday. Let's take a look
at that. Put not, let's praise the Lord, oh my
soul. Put not your trust in princes. Now that
does not mean royalty necessarily. but it means
big shots, wealthy people. Politicians, put not
your trust in these kind of big shots, in other
words, in sons of men in whom there is no salvation.
Then happy is he whose help is the God of Jacob.
whose hope is in the Lord his God, who made heaven
and earth, the sea and all that is in them, who
keeps faith forever. The Lord sets the prisoners
free. Aha. Don't think he's necessarily talking
about murderers who should be in jail, but I
would say people that are falsely and improperly
imprisoned. Or people that are imprisoned by
sin. Who sets the prisoners free. I lost my place.
Yes. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The
Lord lifts up those who are bowed down. The Lord
loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the
sojourners. That's an interesting word. Who does
the Lord watch over? The word itself means non
-residents or non -locals, visitors, tourists.
Sometimes some of the translations are proselytes.
meaning people who have come, who are residents
of Jerusalem, but come to worship in Jerusalem.
I sort of thought of that interesting way of
putting it when I was thinking about this last
night. Tourists. If you've ever gone on vacation,
you know there's a local price and a tourist's
price. People, it's human nature, and I doubt
if it was that different 2 ,000 years ago, the
residents, businessmen, would try and fleece
or shake down people with higher prices that
were visiting in Jerusalem. One last word on
this word, sojourners. It's amusing to me because
it has an acquired difference now. The Orthodox
Study Bible translates this as resident aliens.
Now that's acquired a whole different connotation
in the last 10 or 20 years. But it means non
-locals, in other words. So these are the ones
that the Lord watches over. He upholds the widow
and the fatherless, the orphan and the widow.
But the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
And oh, if it applies to someone, it applies
to the rich man in today's gospel. He did not
fare very well in the next world. Which brings
us then to an understanding of if the Lord is
interested in poor, unimportant people, so to
speak, Like the poor man in today's story who
is really down and out. No question about it.
The Lord is interested in these people. But then
it brings us to the question, which probably
pops to our mind immediately, I would say, when
we read this. What about riches? What do we do
with our money? In another context, it's go sell
what you have, give to the poor. and you will
have treasure in heaven and come follow me. And
the rich young man went away sad because he had
so many possessions. All of these incidents prompted
the emergence of a Christian theology of money,
if I may use that term. Clement of Alexandria,
who lived in the middle of the 3rd century, flourished
about the year 250. He's the one that presented
us with the first Christian economics. First
Christian economics. So here what Clement has
to say about wealth. Our Lord was not telling
Christians to get rid of their wealth. He was
telling them to banish from their souls the primacy
of riches. Riches should not be rejected if they
can be of use to our neighbors. They are goods
because with them we can do good. Riches can
be an instrument. In themselves, riches are blameless.
Riches presents an opportunity to do good. or
to do serious evil. Clement concludes in these
thoughts, it is up to our mind and judgment to
manage what is given to us, really lent to us
because we don't own it, but given to us for
our use. Those who prosper, Clement tells us,
those who prosper bear great responsibility.
to use their wealth and possessions for the kingdom
of God. This same attitude towards money, which
Clement did not just come up with this idea out
of the blue, but if you go back in the early
centuries, Christianity drew primarily from the
poor and the you know, outcasts of society, slaves,
people like that. And then gradually, as decades
rolled on, wealthier people started to enter
the Christian church. And so this presented a
new situation. for the church. And this is what
Clement of Alexandria, what sparked his presentation
of sort of a theology of money, a Christian use
of wealth. So that's why Clement says that. Now,
the final thought, which is very much in line
with Clement's analysis, is what Augustine has
to say as a commentary. Augustine's writing maybe
150 years later after Clement. Augustine says,
Christ did not object to the riches of the rich
man, but to his impiety, infidelity, pride, and
cruelty. The rich should not fear wealth, but
they should fear greed. They should not fear
riches, but vices, They should not fear goods,
but greed. Let them possess wealth like Abraham
did. And Abraham's mentioned in the gospel to
be in the bosom of Abraham. And remember, Abraham's
known for his faith, but he was also a very wealthy
man. Very wealthy man. possess wealth like Abraham
as a man of faith, and let them possess it with
faith. Let them have it and possess it, but not
be possessed by it. And that's a challenge for
all of us, not to be possessed by what we have.
Because regardless of how much income we have,
we can fret too much about all of that. and not
be concerned about more important things in life.
And I'd say as a footnote, this gospel also tells
us to be concerned for the poor and the needy,
to use some of our wealth, no matter how much
money we make, but to use some of our wealth,
some percentage, and give it... to appropriate
charities for those whom God has given less challenges
than the challenges he has given us as relatively
wealthy people. To be wealthy in spirit is more
important, but those of us who are wealthy or
poor in money, let us be wealthy in our spirit.
Amen.