On this 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, we are summoned to close the gap between Us and Them, between our own comfortable lives, and those who need us – the ones we don’t always see in pain on our own doorstep.
The prophet Amos warns us not to be too satisfied with ourselves about our place in the world – especially if we forget to notice other people around us.
The prophet Amos warns us not to be too satisfied with ourselves about our place in the world – especially if we forget to notice other people around us.
And Luke tells of a nameless Rich Man who lived a life of excess. He didn’t just eat well, he “dined sumptuously each day.” Yet literally at his doorstep was Lazarus, a starving man who longed for the scraps that fell from the Rich Man’s table. But as the Rich Man walked past him every day coming and going to his house, it never occurred to him to help the fellow human sprawled in front of him.
The readings invite all to look at the chasms we create in my own life, the false boundaries between Us and Them. Where do I fail to reach out to those who need me because of my own protectiveness of my time, my money or simply my own fears? Are there people in my own life or maybe beyond my daily life that I am being asked to tend to, to feed or to forgive?
The readings invite all to look at the chasms we create in my own life, the false boundaries between Us and Them. Where do I fail to reach out to those who need me because of my own protectiveness of my time, my money or simply my own fears? Are there people in my own life or maybe beyond my daily life that I am being asked to tend to, to feed or to forgive?
