Homily for the 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time, September 28, 2025. Amos 6:1-7; Gospel of St. Luke 16:19-31. Theme: Poor Lazarus Today
Jesus’ Parable of the Rich Man and Poor Lazarus is more than just a story that was told 2,000 years ago. It’s been playing out in flesh and blood reality throughout history because there have always been and still are the “haves” and the “have-nots”. The moral lesson of this story is that the good we fail to do in this life will have a direct connection as to where we will spend our eternity in the next. The parable informs us that it was precisely because the Rich Man failed to do good to poor Lazarus, his neighbor in need, that he found himself in a terrible and eternal predicament.
Jesus began his story by pointing out that the man was dressed in purple and fine linen. Now, why would he have bothered to mention this detail? Well, he wasn’t making a fashion statement! Rather, his listeners knew that the hard-to-get purple cloth and the fine Egyptian linen were among the most expensive fabrics in the entire Roman Empire. For this reason they were worn only by the nobility. So, this told them that the man wasn’t just well-off but was in fact what we might call today, “filthy rich”. In other words, he could have done whatever it took, he could have done whatever was required, to help poor Lazarus. He had all the means at his disposal, but he chose to do nothing. He ignored him as if he was invisible and went about his complacent, self-indulgent life as usual.
Poor Lazarus, a broken and suffering human being, was right there at the front gate of the Rich Man’s estate but he simply and frankly didn’t care. He didn’t even do so much as lift a finger to help him. He could have sent a meal out to him. He could have had one of his many servants go and check on the sick man’s condition. Instead, he just left poor Lazarus there to suffer alone. And I’m sure his suffering was increased by the fact that he could smell the food cooking and could hear the festivities happening just a few yards away. The Rich Man was just like the complacent people in our First Reading who were lounging on their couches and stuffing their bellies as they neglected the plight of the poor. God condemned them through his prophet Amos because of their self-focused, self-indulgent lives.
Through this parable, Jesus is reaching out to us and asking us to examine ourselves and our own lifestyles. He is calling us to have a compassionate heart for the many poor Lazaruses who sit and beg at the front doors of our stores, on the corners of our streets, and throughout our neighborhoods and towns. He is directing us to see and acknowledge their human dignity, no matter who they are, no matter what they are, and no matter where they come from. He is reminding us that we have a serious moral responsibility to take care of the many poor Lazaruses who are suffering in so many ways today. So, how can we respond to them as individuals, as a church, and as a nation?
As individuals, one simple but vital thing we can do is to treat the poor in a respectful manner. A priest who has a lot of experience in street ministry once told me a simple way to do this. He said that when seeing a beggar don’t just walk past them looking the other way, but extend a greeting to them. And if we have something to give, don't just hand it off briskly but ask their first name and then address them by it. This kind of response costs us absolutely nothing but is a powerful way to show that we acknowledge them as persons. It tells them that they are not invisible to us. It shows that we recognize their human dignity and are not just putting them in a box labeled: ”Just Another Dirty Beggar on the Street”.
And as a Church we are supposed to respond to the poor with the kind of words and actions that Jesus displayed for the sick, the suffering, the outcast and the vulnerable. And so when we as a Church encounter poor Lazarus today we know that we must feed his hunger and tend his wounds. And one doable way any of us can accomplish this as part of the Church is by participating in or supporting the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Our parish Vincentians extend mercy and provide help to so many of our neighbors in need. They bring hope and strength to those who struggle just to survive. Your participation in or financial donation to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is a beautiful way to become part of this response of the Church to poor Lazarus right here in Marin County. Our special collection today on this St. Vincent de Paul weekend is precisely to provide you with the opportunity to do this.
Finally, we must respond to the plight of the poor as a united people, as citizens of one of the wealthiest nations on planet Earth. We Americans have long felt a responsibility to look after the vulnerable, to show compassionate concern for the neglected and to care for the weakest among us. But our national heart seems to be hardening. Our attention seems to be turning in on ourselves. And as a result, many of the poor Lazaruses in our world today continue to suffer. But as Christian citizens we are called to be like the prophet Amos and raise a public voice on behalf of the needy. We are supposed to go and announce the Gospel of the Lord that proclaims Jesus’ and the Church’s preferential love for the poor, the vulnerable, the neglected and the weak. We have an obligation in our civic and political activities to help build a nation that is rooted in justice and that shows mercy to all without exception, no matter who they are or where they come from.
Our personal, as well as collective national consciences, should be pricked by Jesus’ parable and make us ask: “Why is poor Lazarus still suffering inhumane conditions in our well-supplied nation? What in our political and social systems are perpetuating his destitution? How can we as a united people better tend to his oozing social wounds and heal them? These are hard questions but we have a responsibility before God to ask and to answer them. For if we choose not to, then we run the risk of ending up like that unrepentant Rich Man of the parable. We will find ourselves begging for even just a tiny drop of water to cool the torment that we have brought down upon ourselves by our complacent self-focused lives as individuals, as a Church and as a nation.
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