Breaking indifference down

According to Luke, when Jesus cried out,  “You cannot serve both God and Mammon,” some of the Pharisees who heard him, and who loved money, “sneered at him.”  Jesus does not back down.  He narrates, soon after, a heart-rending parable so that those who are slaves to money  may open their eyes.

Jesus describes in a few words a horrendous situation.  A rich man and a poor beggar who live very close to each other are separated by the chasm between the rich man’s life of offensive opulence and the poor man’s extreme misery.

The account describes the two characters strongly emphasizing the contrast between them.  The rich man is dressed in purple and very fine linen, and the body of the poor man is covered with sores.  The rich dines sumptuously not just on special days but everyday, while the poor is lying at the door of the rich, unable to put in his mouth what falls from the rich man’s table.  Only dogs that come looking for something in the garbage go near him to lick his sores.

At no time is it said that the rich man has exploited the poor man or has mistreated or scorned him.  One could say the rich man has done nothing wrong.  However, his whole life is inhuman, for he only lives for his own well-being.  He has a heart of stone.  He completely ignores the poor man.  He has him before his eyes, but he does not see him.  He is right there, sick, hungry and abandoned, yet he is not able to go through the door to take charge of him.

Let us not fool ourselves.  Jesus is not denouncing only the situation in Galilee in the thirties.  He is trying to shake up the consciences of those of us who have gotten used to a life of plenty while we have near our gateway, a few flight hours away, entire peoples living and dying in the most abject misery.

It is inhuman to enclose ourselves in our “welfare state” ignoring the “the malaise state.”  It is cruel to keep feeding this “secret illusion of innocence” that allows us to live with a tranquil conscience, thinking that it is everybody’s and nobody’s fault.

Our first task is to break indifference down.  To refuse to go on enjoying our compassionless comfort.  Not to continue isolating ourselves mentally to send away to an abstract distant place the misery and the hunger there are in the world, so that we may live without hearing any crying, groaning or mourning.

The Gospel can help us be vigilant, without becoming increasingly insensitive to the sufferings of the abandoned, without losing the sense of responsibility for our brothers and sisters, and without remaining passive when we can act.

José Antonio Pagola

September 29, 2013
26 Ordinary Time (C)
Luke 16, 19-31