A few years ago I was driving somewhere and I gave a
lift to a man. He was a musician, a busker and basically lived by
busking on the streets. Not an easy way of life. He had
practically all his possessions with him. He told me he knew over 350
songs, which was quite impressive. When he realised that I was a
priest he began asking me about religion. I can’t remember much of
what he said except for one thing. He said that he wasn’t very
religious but that he preferred to stay out of it and sit on the
fence. When we spoke about death and meeting God he said that he
would plead ignorance. That was the thing that struck me the most. He
said, ‘I’ll just plead ignorance.’
I suppose if God were just another human being, we might
get away with pleading ignorance, but since God knows everything
about us, including our motivations, all the things that have
influenced us during our life that cause us to act as we do, how free
or not we are to make choices, I don’t think that pleading
ignorance will be much use! This is not to just focus on the negative
as if we should be afraid of God because He is out to get us. On the
contrary, the Lord loves us and wants to help us in every way
possible. He knows our weaknesses and what we struggle with, but He
also knows when we avoid responsibility.
In the readings today we are presented not so much with
the rich and the poor, rather with those who deliberately turn their
back on justice. We are shown the two extremes. The poor man Lazarus
was at this rich man’s gate. In other words the rich man couldn’t
have missed him because he was right under his nose. And it says that
‘Lazarus longed to fill himself with the scraps that fell from the
rich man’s table’, which implies that he was not offered a thing,
not even a small amount. So it’s not as if the rich man did a
certain amount and it wasn’t enough. Jesus is telling us that he
did absolutely nothing. That is why he lost heaven, not because he
had riches. There is nothing wrong with having riches. What we do
with it is what’s important. If I am wealthy then that is the
situation God has given me in this life (provided I acquired it in a
just way, of course!). What I do with it is what’s important.
Equally you might think that Lazarus could have got off
his butt and done something for himself. But the fact that he ‘lay’
at the rich man’s gate and that he was covered in sores, tells us
that he was sick and helpless. You could say that God put him there
deliberately to allow the rich man to help him, but he chose to do
nothing.
I have no doubt that God often puts people in our path
who may need our help, but we always have the choice to help them or
not. God has given us that freedom and the help we give people may
not even be financial help. It may be something as simple as a smile
or an encouraging word that is needed. All the time we are coming
across people who need our help and if we are open to it we will
recognise them. If we have plenty, thank God for it, but it also
means that we have an obligation to help those who are in need and
there is no shortage of them, both in this country and all over the
world. ‘The poor will always be with you.’
So you could say there is a double message here. First,
let us thank God for what we have. Second, let us also ask God to
help us make good use of what we have. God has given us freedom to do
what we want in this life, but we are also asked to be responsible.
There is a common misconception today that being free means being
able to do anything you want, good or bad. However, true freedom is
the freedom to choose what is good. That is what the Lord wants for
us and that is also what will help us the most. If we find ourselves
in a situation where we have plenty, we must remember first that we
are in the minority, and second that we have a responsibility to look
out for those who are in need and they are in the majority.
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