Holy Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, Mother of the poor, pray for us, Help us to realize more fully that we can’t love God unless we also love our neighbor, for whatever we fail to do to the least of these we fail to do unto Jesus.

Luke 16 Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time. September 29th, 2013

Today we hear what lies at the very heart of being a faithful loving disciple of Jesus Christ; it can be summed up in the following: “What ever you did to the least of my brethren you did unto me and whatever you failed to do unto the least of my brethren you failed to do unto me.” This is also what is at the heart of the social justice message found in the Gospel. But how the social justice message has been misunderstood in the past 40 years or so! Today’s gospel helps us to see the message clearly.

The great sin of the rich man in today’s Gospel, was not that he was rich, for nowhere in the scriptures does Jesus condemn the mere possession of earthly goods as such. But the great sin of this man was that he failed to use his riches to help another in need. Jesus thus harshly condemns all those who use their earthly goods in a selfish way. The rich man was condemned then because he failed to even take notice, in justice, of the poor man Lazarus, who was definitely in need.

The rich man probably did nothing wrong as he amassed his fortune. He probably was not responsible for the wretched poverty of Lazarus, at least not in any direct way. And He probably did not take advantage of the situation to exploit Lazarus. Nevertheless, the rich man had a definite lifestyle. It might be summed up with the words, “he feasted magnificently.” In other words, He lived for solely for himself as if God did not exist, as if there was no judgment after death. He had completely forgotten the fact that we are not owners of what we have, but only administrators and we must look out for the needs of others-we are indeed our brother’s keeper.

The rich man in the Gospel did not know how, or better yet, did not care, to share what God had blessed him with. St. Augustine commenting on this parable, said that Lazarus was not received into heaven because he was poor, but because he was humble. And wealth itself was not what kept the rich man from eternal bliss after all who was Abraham? Abraham himself was the riches of all men while He was on earth. No, the rich man’s punishment was for his selfishness and disloyalty. The sadness of this story is even more increased when we realized that the rich man knew Lazarus by name, for he tells Abraham to send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue and begs Abraham to send Lazarus to his father's house and to his five brothers, so that Lazarus may warn them, lest they too come to his place of torment.

Each one of us needs to have this parable of the rich man and Lazarus present in our memory; it must form our conscience. When we are in need, when we are not living in luxury, faith and trust in God become paramount; people worry more about their eternal salvation. Yet, paradoxically, when we have enough and more than enough and are lying in our comfort, we can become as the book of Amos says, complacent. In our complacency the last thing on our mind is our eternal salvation, not to mention the salvation of our neighbor. Our hearts can then become hardened to the point that even someone rising from the dead will not convince us of the truth.

Christ however, demands openness to our brothers and sisters in need—openness from the rich, the affluent, the economically advantaged; openness to the poor, the underdeveloped and the disadvantaged, openness to those who are the most vulnerable in our society, not only those who are poor economically, but those who like the unborn, the disabled and the elderly are unable to protect themselves. But this openness also extends to those who are being treated unjustly among us, those who are being bullied, those who are the victims of gossip, rumors or unjust accusations. These too are the poor we are called to assist. How many there are who care for the physical poor but yet can turn a blind eye to other injustices in their own communities, families or even in our church family; even though they may work to fill the poor man’s belly, nevertheless they are still like the rich man; it is still all about them.

Mother Theresa, that great champion of the poor, said that the poorest country she had ever been in, even more so than Calcutta, was the United States. She said the reason that U.S. was so poor was not because it’s people lacked material goods, obviously we are the richest country in the world materially speaking, but that so many in our country do not know the Love and knowledge of Jesus Christ, and so are literally starving for His love. She saw ours as a land of great injustice made apparent in its legalization of killing the unborn. And as such there is no peace, no great joy. The person may die in Calcutta poor but he does so with joy.

The fact is, is that everyone is looking for love, looking for happiness, but billions are looking for it in all the wrong places. Our greatest mission as believing Catholics is to lead souls who are staving for love and happiness to Jesus Christ the source of all real love and true happiness. We ourselves are actually called to make up for the lack of love of God in the world; we must love others for love of God. We are called to stand up to all injustices if we want peace; and if we want peace we must stand up and defend the dignity and the life of all human persons no matter their condition; and if we want life we must proclaim the fullness of the truth of the Gospel as found in the Teachings of the Church, the truth that brings life (c.f. John Paul II). In this way we bring God’s love to our poor brothers and sisters, whether they be materially poor or rich, and in doing so we bring them to Jesus and to his truth which leads them to happiness. By our love, we remind them and ourselves that it is only faith in Jesus as the Son of Living God as shown by our faithful obedience to His Commandments out our love for Him and for neighbor that brings us true and abiding happiness.

But before we can be enabled, empowered, to do any of this, before we can bring Jesus’ love to the poor and lead the poor to Him, we must first recognize Jesus’ presence among us and go to Him. In other words, we just can’t bring Jesus and His love to other’s if we don’t recognize that Jesus is truly, corporally present in the Holy Eucharist. We can’t love others as Jesus loves us without coming into the God who is love present in the Holy Eucharist. The Eucharist is the source of all love and the source of all power to love. And so we can’t lead others to the love of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist unless in faith we ourselves first come adore and love Him present there, as the true and living God. Once we realize through faith that the Eucharist is really Jesus Himself—God among us, then we will realize as did Mother Theresa and all the saints, that the truly poor of this world, are those who do not know Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and so are apart from the very fount of the living water of God’s love and mercy poured out for them.

The rich man knew Lazarus by name, and yet he didn’t give Him food. We too know so many modern day Lazarus’ by name; they may even bear the name of our parents our brothers and sisters, children, coworkers and friends, Lazarus’ that do not know the truth that the food for which they are starving for is the food of the Holy Eucharist. We can’t be like the rich man and fail to give the Lazarus’ of our lives what they need most in this world, and that is the truth that the Eucharist is Jesus, God still among us, who in His unfathomable love for us, gives us Himself as our food in order to fill our hunger and quench our thirst for love. Without faith in this Heavenly food, there can be no true justice in our world, no true peace and no fullness of life nor any true happiness or joy.

A few years back, Pope Emeritus Benedict wrote a instruction about the Holy Eucharist as the Sacrament of Charity.” The instruction was entitled Sacramentum Caritatis and it was written to the to the bishops, clergy, consecrated persons and the lay faithful. I want to end share with you an important paragraph of this beautiful document. Close you eyes and ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind to this great truth; in fact this section has the heading: “The food of truth.”

2. In the sacrament of the altar, the Lord meets us; men and women created in God's image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:27), and becomes our companion along the way. In this sacrament, the Lord truly becomes food for us, to satisfy our hunger for truth and freedom. Since only the truth can make us free (cf. Jn 8:32), Christ becomes for us the food of truth. With deep human insight, Saint Augustine clearly showed how we are moved spontaneously, and not by constraint, whenever we encounter something attractive and desirable. Asking himself what it is that can move us most deeply, the saintly Bishop went on to say: "What does our soul desire more passionately than truth?" (2) Each of us has an innate and irrepressible desire for ultimate and definitive truth. The Lord Jesus, "the way, and the truth, and the life" (Jn 14:6), speaks to our thirsting, pilgrim hearts, our hearts yearning for the source of life, our hearts longing for truth. Jesus Christ is the Truth in person, drawing the world to himself. "Jesus is the lodestar of human freedom: without him, freedom loses its focus, for without the knowledge of truth, freedom becomes debased, alienated and reduced to empty caprice. With him, freedom finds itself." (3) In the sacrament of the Eucharist, Jesus shows us in particular the truth about the love which is the very essence of God. It is this evangelical truth which challenges each of us and our whole being. For this reason, the Church, which finds in the Eucharist the very centre of her life, is constantly concerned to proclaim to all, opportune importune (cf. 2 Tim 4:2), that God is love.(4) Precisely because Christ has become for us the food of truth, the Church turns to every man and woman, inviting them freely to accept God's gift.

Let us end with a prayer:

Holy Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, Mother of the poor, pray for us, Help us to realize more fully that we can’t love God unless we also love our neighbor, for whatever we fail to do to the least of these we fail to do unto Jesus. Helps us to see then, that Love of neighbor is a path that leads us to God, and that closing our eyes to our neighbor also blinds us to God.” (Pope Benedict, “Deus Caritas Est.”) Help us as well to accept more fully, in faith, God’s greatest gift and so our greatest treasure, His Gift of the Most Holy Eucharist. Help us to realize that because we have Jesus in the Holy Eucharist we are truly the richest of the rich. Feeding on this Sacrament of Charity at the Holy Mass, help us to then share our riches with the poor; in other words, help us to share the love of God we receive in this great Sacrament with the poor around us and lead them to feast as well at the Feast of God’s love—the Holy Eucharist, which is Jesus Himself who literally gives Himself as food for our soul. Amen.