Two ancient stories resonate with Sunday's Gospel Reading. One is Egyptian, the other Rabbinical. The former is about the reversal of fortunes in the afterlife. The latter was about Abraham's servant Eleazar (Lazarus in Greek) who walked the earth in disguise to check on Abraham's children's observance of God's command to care for the poor, especially orphans, widows, and strangers.
In Jesus's parable, Lazarus wasn't in disguise. He was so poor, sick, and starved that his plight was described by Abraham as evil. Left by the rich man's gate, he was in such terrible state that only street dogs kept him company, licking his sores. He died waiting for crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. He died away from any human contact and, thus, was not even buried. Being buried is the last act of human decency that societies have practiced for millenia. Lazarus died and no one was around to bury him. God had to send angels to bring him to Abraham's bosom.
The rich man feasted every day. He also died. He was buried--I'm sure in grand fashion--with scores of professional crying ladies.
Today, the world spends more money on ice cream and cosmetics than on basic health care, safe water, or basic literacy programs for the most vulnerable communities. Twenty-five thousand people starve to death each day while one country has enough resources to feed 40 billion people! (That's five times the population of the world.)
Today, Lazaruses abound outside our homes, our offices, and our places of worship: homeless, jobless, hopeless... Suffering alone! With street dogs as company. And we, like Cain, smugly assert, "Am I my brother's keeper?"
Unless we change, unless we repent, unless we sell everything we have and give all the proceeds to the poor, we will find ourselves in agony, tormented by flames in Hell. With the rich man. And Donald Trump!
#ChooseJustice
#LoveGodServePeople
#FreePalestine
#ClemencyForMaryJane
#PrayForMyanmar
#PrayForSriLanka
*Art, "The Rich Man and Lazarus," JESUS MAFA, 1973, from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.
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