Ferbane Parish

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. On the other hand the rich man has no name because that is all he was-just a rich man! If you make wealth your very identity and something takes the money away, there is no ‘you’ left. 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!

‘Many things need to change course, but it is we human beings above all who need to change. All is not lost. Human beings are also capable of rising above themselves, choosing again what is good and making a new start’. (‘Laudato Si’)