BEHOLD THE MAN! (ECCE HOMO!)
Blessed 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time to you. And to all readers who hail from foreign countries & are living & working here in Singapore, a Happy Migrant Sunday to you.
The readings this Sunday follow last weekend’s theme & continue to focus on God’s love & care for the poor & lowly. They challenge us to really look at the less fortunate with the eyes of care & compassion. I’m intrigued by the synopsis of today’s mass readings given in the Sunday Missal (shown below), & hope to unpack it in today’s reflection:
Behold the Man!
It is our purple and fine linen, our life of ease and our love of wealth, that is mocked today by the lone figure of Christ, the centre of our celebration, who in the presence of Pilate stood like a Lazarus covered with sores and wounds and spoke up as a witness for the truth.
The 1st Reading from Amos 6:1,4-7 portrays the wealthy, privileged & accomplished, living their lavish lifestyle & conspicuous consumption, with hardly any concern for the “Have-Nots” & their plight. Amos grimly prophesies their fate: “they will be the first to be exiled” (Amos 6:7) & lose all they treasure & possess.
Our Gospel from Luke 16:19-31 take up the same theme. The parable about the un-named rich man (though referred to as ‘Dives’, meaning ‘Rich’ in Latin) & Lazarus (who is named), a poor & hungry man covered with sores, who sits outside Dives’ gate, gives us invaluable lessons about the heart of our Lord. At one side, we see Lazarus being carried by angels into the bosom of Abraham after he dies & is receiving his eternal comfort after a lifetime of poverty, pain & suffering. At the other, we see the rich, self-sufficient, well-adorned (who dressed in purple & fine linen often) & well-fed (who feasted magnificently every day) who also died and was buried, & in everlasting torment in Hades.
There’s nothing in the text that says that the rich man was wicked, murdered people, an adulterer, cheated or defrauded people, or gained his wealth by unethical means. So, he wasn’t condemned because of his wealth. But what landed him into (pardon the pun) hot soup & the flames of Hades was because he was totally indifferent to the sufferings & pains of Lazarus & never bothered to lift a finger to help him or show any concern to him. Even the dogs showed Lazarus more love & sympathy by licking his sores. Mind you, it was not that he was oblivious of Lazarus – he referred to him by his name when pleading with Abrahim. He just treated Lazarus like a nobody, unworthy of his attention, & even in death, tried to treat Lazarus like an errand boy by asking him to cool his tongue.
So, stone-cold indifference to the plight of others; a heart so seduced by wealth, hardened & closed to compassion & mercy for the poor; pride & arrogance; & an entitlement mentality – that’s what Jesus is warning us to watch out for today. May we have eyes to see & ears to hear this today, & a humble, contrite heart to repent if we find ourselves like the rich man.
Let’s now turn our attention to the synopsis of today’s mass readings. We read that Jesus stands like Lazarus before Pilate, covered with sores & wounds, “so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of mortals … he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity” (cf Isaiah 52:14, 53:2-3). Yet, Jesus bears witness to the great truth about God we read in our Responsorial Psalm 146:6-10 – “The Lord who keeps faith forever, is just to the oppressed, sets prisoners free, raises up those bowed down, loves the just, protects the stranger” – by his crucifixion, death & resurrection! And the poor & pitiful “Lazarus” of the world will likewise be raised up & receive eternal comfort from God, like in our Gospel today.
My mind goes to the parable of the Last Judgement in Matthew Chapter 25 Verses 31 to 46, when Jesus the King will separate sheep & goats, & give eternal reward to those who imitate the example of God’s love, showed mercy & compassion, fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger, clothed the naked & visited the sick and those in prison, And the chilling contrast – the king will send to eternal condemnation those who were indifferent to the suffering & poor & ignored their cries for help.
Today, the challenge for us all (me included) is this question that demands our honest answer: Will we be the sheep of the parable & show kindness, love & mercy to the poor, lonely, rejected & unloved? Or will we be stubborn goats that persist in our self-sufficiency & revel in the immensity of our wealth & riches that our hearts remain cold & indifferent to the needs of the less fortunate? We really need the help of the Holy Spirit to change our hearts, to embrace this spirit of detachment, to let go of our pride, judgementalism & entitlement mentality, & to reach out with love & compassion to others.
Article by Damian Boon, HFC Blog Team Lead