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26 Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C Luke 16:19-31 Yet

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26 Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C Luke 16:19-31 Yet 26th Sunday in ordinary Time – year C Luke 16:19-31 Yet another very unusual parable, which Jesus shares with the Pharisees (and us!)… What exactly does Jesus seek to reveal? Jesus contrasts great comfort with great distress: a rich man who dressed and ate well and a poor man who did not. Jesus contrasts, more deeply, self-satisfaction with yearning. Jesus contrasts a closed heart with an open heart. The two men die. The poor man dies and is immediately taken to the bosom of Abraham, the abode of bliss. The rich man dies and is simply buried, and from there, the netherworld, cries. As far as I can tell, this is not primarily a parable about heaven and hell. Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees, in relation to their beliefs (which, regarding heaven and hell, are unclear). The netherworld – Hades in Greek, Sheol in Hebrew – is not hell (which is Gehenna). The netherworld is • the abode of the dead • the unknown region • the invisible world of departed souls It is to this netherworld that Jesus, when He dies, descends to free the just. [Jesus does not descend into hell, where there is no room or receptivity.] There are other signs that the rich man is not in hell: 1. The love he exhibits for his relatives. There is no love in hell. 2. The original Greek terms that are translated “torture” or “torment”. • do not suggest the pain of definitive separation but the different pain of testing, purification, correction • have a connotation of sorrow or internal pain 3. Those on the other side of the abyss cannot be in heaven, if they are considering the possibility of crossing to the other side. • Heaven is perfect bliss. • There will be no desire for anything else. What is important here is the fact that the rich man goes to a place consistent with how he lived life. He lived his comfort (which is normally a good thing) in such a way that it led to insensitivity and isolation, a sort of inner death. Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees who are rather full of themselves. They had become • insensitive • diminished in love • spiritually dead The poor man, almost by virtue of his poverty, is brought to comfort. The poor man, prompted by his poverty, yearned. Yearning is the key, for heavenly bliss is a gratuitous gift. The rich man was so full that • he did not have a name • he lost his identity as a child of God, as one who receives from God In this, the poor man is truly, and most properly, related to Abraham. Kinship with Abraham is first and foremost spiritual. It is all about letting the heavens rain love upon us. Those who do so are related to Abraham. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to • open our hearts • shower us with grace so to keep us awake and sensitive and loving. Let us be opened each day by the Holy Spirit, opened to the treasures of heaven and to one another, treasures of heaven. And let us never forget the presence of Christ in the distressing disguise of the poor. How often he wishes to visit us in this way, and we are too full to meet him… .
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