26th SUNDAY IN
ORDINARY TIME
The rich man and Lazarus
The sin of the rich man in today’s Gospel
is the sin of omission. It’s not that he did
something wrong. He just did nothing.
His wealth blinded him to the fact that a
poor man lay at his gate. His indifference
calls to mind the age-old adage: ‘to close
one’s heart is to begin to die; to open one’s
heart is to begin to live’. It is not without
significance that the poor man Lazarus
is the only person to be named in all the
parables of Jesus. The poor are always close
to His heart. We had better take notice.
We are indeed called to be our brother’s
and our sister’s keepers. In a world where
a child dies from malnutrition every two
seconds the image of the parable should
disturb us. The poor are still at the gate.
How we treat them will determine the
kind of welcome we will receive at another
gate!