In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
All around us, dear brothers and sisters, there are those in poverty. For some, indeed, it is a poverty of money, for others a poverty of food. But there are other types of poverty: of love, of hope, of company, of direction. We meet people who, for their whole lives, they have worked—worked hard and diligently—to build up wealth, to provide for their families, to support charities, but for what purpose? Their poverty overtakes them and they, too, can experience a poverty of meaning in their lives. And this poverty has lead to an explosion of anxiety, of addictions, of depressions.
And I come to Church and God offers to me Life. Not merely a continuous and unending series of moments—what a boring hell that would be!—but Life where now all things are present, now we experience God to an ever greater depth, now all things are filled with Life. I come to Church and God is calling me to become something greater, to fulfil my potential, to reveal in my life here in this fallen world the likeness of God. And I hesitate, and I falter, and I shy away from it. Here, clothed in the most beautiful purple and fine linen, feasting sumptuously on Life, I neglect Lazarus at my gate. I have heard the Gospel but believe it applies only to me, I have experienced the Resurrection and bring that into my life but no further, I eat of the Bread of Life but deny Him to others. And in torment, from the depths of Hades, I will cry out, “Have mercy upon me.”
“I am the living Bread,” says the Lord,
which came down from Heaven. If anyone eats of this Bread, he will live forever; and the Bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.
John 6:51
Christ came for me, yes! But Christ did not come solely for me: he came that the whole world may have Life. The Apostle tells us,
For if I preach the Gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the Gospel!
First Corinthians 9:16
And some of us will preach the Gospel with words, though our world has, perhaps, had enough of words—people telling them what to do, what to think, what to say. Lazarus, in his lifetime, did not need words, he needed deeds. The Apostle James tells us,
But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
James 1:22–27
For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;
for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless.
Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, gathered here together we are the rich man. But lest we share in his fate we need to serve Lazarus at our gate, not preaching at them with our words but sharing the Gospel not through our words but by our deeds, being “ready to give a defence to everyone who asks [us] a reason for the hope that is in [us], with meekness and fear.” (First Peter 3:15) Let us serve others that we may make use of the blessings we have received, passing them on to as many as would receive them, that we may be carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom and numbered among the righteous.
That we may grow in service and love and serve as our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ serves and lays down his life that others may live, and offer to Him praise, glory and worship, together with His unoriginate Father and the All-holy, Good and Life-giving Spirit. Amen.
Brethren, knowing that a man is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law, because by works of the law shall no one be justified. But if, in our endeavour to be justified in Christ, we ourselves were found to be sinners, is Christ then an agent of sin? Certainly not! But if I build up again those things which I tore down, then I prove myself a transgressor. For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
— Galatians 2:16–20
The Lord said, “There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, full of sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses, and the prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if some one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to them, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead.’
— Luke 16:19–31