(Season of Creation 4) Gospel: Luke 16:9-31 A great reversal
In Luke’s Gospel, there is an emphasis on seeing the poor and the oppressed. The rich man in today’s Gospel does not ‘see’ Lazarus, and even in the afterlife, he is still blinded and unwilling to change. He wants Lazarus to be sent to his brothers to warn them, for they too do not really see. Their vision has been blinded by wealth, and they do not see the reality of the poor who are at their gates. God’s economic plan means striving for a world where the poor man Lazarus can sit down at the same table as the rich man, and where we listen to the cry of the poor.
Joanna Sustento is from Tacloban City in the Philippines. In the storm surge of Typhoon Haiyan on 8 November 2013, she lost her parents, her brother, her sister-in-law and her three-year-old nephew Tarin. Joanna was the only person to survive from her household that night. This was the largest typhoon ever to make landfall on recorded history. 10,000 people perished in two hours and fourteen million were displaced. The strength of Typhoon Haiyan is attributed by scientists to climate change.
It is an injustice that those who have done the least to cause this problem are on the frontline of the crisis. When we hear the scientific data, we become easily detached. When we hear real stories, however, and see the devastation and grief of families, we can be moved by compassion to act. We are at a crossroads as a global community: we have the solutions to move forward into a more sustainable future for all, but we are in danger of failing for lack of political will. May today’s Gospel truly remind us to see the realities of the ecological crisis so that we can act for the protection of all life on earth.
© Triona Doherty & Jane Mellet, 2021. The Deep End: A Journey with the Sunday Gospels in the Year of Luke. (Dublin: Messenger Publications 2021.
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Time is running out … We do not have the luxury of waiting for other to step forward, or of prioritising short-term economic benefits. The climate crisis requires our decisive action, here and now and the Church is fully committed to playing her part. – Pope Francis