The prophet Amos was very much the outdoors man. He was a sheep breeder and a pruner of sycamore trees. Yet the prophet had seen enough of life in both the northern kingdom, Israel, and the southern kingdom, Judea, to know that Jewish society was everywhere way out of balance. He recalls the well-to-do on their couches of ivory and the well-fed taking delight in meals of roasted lamb and grilled veal. These rich are entertained by the harpist’s touch and made mellow by generous portions of wine. Their skin is protected from Palestine’s scorching rays by “the best oils.” Amos’ message to the comfortable in society of his day is the perennial warning of every century’s seers: “Woe to the complacent in Zion!”
In this coming Sunday’s Gospel account, St. Luke, always a friend of the poor and the needy, draws a brief but mindful tableau of high living in his own day: “There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day.” (16:19) So without mentioning the roasted lamb or the fine wines or the body oils, St. Luke quickly manages to convey of a picture of complacency and self-satisfaction. Neither Amos’ comfortable society nor St. Luke’s contented neighbor is actually accused of any wrong-doing. They are not judged as thieves or murderers or adulterers or swindlers. Their fault rather was neglect and indifference and apathy. It was not what they did but what they did not do that earned them the condemnation of both the prophet and the evangelist.
St. Luke especially details a touching depiction of indifference toward a needy neighbor when he writes, “And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table.” (16:21) St. Luke at least tries to bestow some dignity on the leprous beggar when he gives him the name Lazarus—the only time an individual in one of Christ’s parable is accorded a name. But, to add insult to injury and to insist upon the man’s sorry state, St. Luke adds quickly, “Dogs even used to come and lick his sores.” (16:22)
St. Luke’s profound concern for the disadvantaged of his day and his bold dismissal of those in comfortable circumstances are bluntly announced in his brief list of beatitudes. St. Matthew often tempers his beatitudes with phrases like “poor in spirit,” “hunger and thirst for justice,” “insulted because of me.” But not so St. Luke. His beatific statements flatly and simply exalt the “poor,” the “hungry,” the “weeping,” the “hated,” the “excluded,” and the “insulted.” No questions asked. And St. Luke’s following condemnations are equally generic. The Evangelist flatly denounces “the rich,” “the filled,” “the laughing,” and those of whom others “speak well.” No redeeming qualities are at all allowed these upper classes.
For this evangelist, poverty is a blessing; wealth is a curse. Now many readers might take a deep breath and dare to disagree with St. Luke. The homeless living under Rhode Island’s bridges and the third world migrants streaming toward North American and European borders generate little envy no matter how comfortable they might be in the world to come. Theirs is indeed a sorry lot. St. Luke’s words, certainly dramatic and intense, are clearly meant indeed to offer comfort to the poor but perhaps more to offer advice, indeed a strong warning, to the prosperous. St. Luke’s tough words are intended to announce God’s profound displeasure on those so blinded by their present fortunate situation that they do not recognize and appreciate the real obligations of God’s kingdom. A comfortable living is not evil. But when ease and security lead to a neglect of what St. Matthew would label “the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy and fidelity,” (23:23), then earthly blessings turn into curses. Indifference deadens charity and dulls justice.
The psalm response for this Sunday’s liturgy offers much cheerier guidance for those intent on a truly Godly life. Psalm 146 outlines God’s own agenda for righteous living valid in any generation: “Blessed is the Lord who keeps faith forever, secures justice for the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets captives free. The Lord gives sight to the blind. The Lord raises up those who were bowed down. The Lord loves the just. The Lord protects strangers. The fatherless and the widow the Lord sustains, but the way of the wicked he thwarts.” St. Luke’s thoughts exactly.
