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Jesus said to the Pharisees, ‘There was a rich man who used to dress in purple and fine linen and feast magnificently every day. And at his gate there lay a poor man called Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to fill himself with the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even came and licked his sores. Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried.     ‘In his torment in Hell he looked up and saw Abraham a long way off with Lazarus. So he cried out, “Father Abraham, pity me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these flames.” “My son,” Abraham replied “remember that during your life good things came your way, just as bad things came the way of Lazarus. Now he is being comforted here while you are in agony.

‘The rich man replied, “Father, I beg you then to send Lazarus to my father’s house, since I have five brothers, to give them warning so that they do not come to this place of torment too.” “They have Moses and the prophets,” said Abraham “let them listen to them.

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At the time of telling this story to the Pharisees there were no Gospels. The Gospels were written about Jesus after he had ascended into Heaven so here the rich man in Heaven is being told his brothers should read what we know as the Old Testament, which at the time was the only scripture.

But why were they being told to read the scriptures? So that they might avoid being sent to Hell. IN the story the rich man is clearly very rich, he wears purple, which was the most expensive of dyes which is why it is associated with royalty. He wears fine linen, linen itself was an expensive fabric in biblical times, its a cool fabric to wear in hot weather. He feasts magnificently every day, most people of the time lived on one meal a day, they would not have the money for magnificent feasts.

And Lazarus was very poor, he used to come each day to the rich man’s house hoping the rich man would take pity on him, but it never happened.

Lazarus would not have got to Heaven just for being poor, he would have had to live a good and just life to get there. The rich man, in our story is now wishing he had used his wealth more generously.

And so should we. But the problem is, we don’t consider ourselves to be rich, when compared to many others, we are.

Let’s compare ourselves with rich people that we know. Simon Cowell, houses all over the world, big flash cars (although he dresses like he is poor), Pogba, Ronaldo, Higuain, Neymar, all of these people live lives we can, at the moment, only dream of.

But, as yourself this, how many of us here had breakfast this morning? And if you didn’t, could have had breakfast if you’d wanted it? Who is going to have lunch today? Who has their own Bedroom? Who has their own TV? Who has their own telephone? Who has their own bed? Who has their own clothes other than their school uniform?

We know there are others in the world who would feel very rich if they had those things. Who would rather stay at home than be in school? But there are children throughout the whole world who do not have access to education. There are adults who do not have the qualifications to do the job they want to do.

We at St Joseph’s have proven ourselves to be very generous. Our hamper campaign last year provided 34 families with food for Christmas, we also did it in a small way at Easter. This is very good and the sort of thing that as a Catholic we are called to do but then there is the old saying ‘charity begins at home’.  Sometimes people use this expression as an excuse to not give to charities that help people overseas. While they might be right, charity does begin at home, it does not end there, which is why we should give to overseas charities as well as local ones.

Charity does not mean giving. It means being charitable. It means helping people without reason, it has it’s stem in the Latin word for ‘love’. Last year some of our Year 11s helped with the British Home across the road, they gave their time, not money, not donations of packets of rice or pasta, they donated their time. Being charitable can be helping people in all sorts of small way, holding open a door, lending a pen, we’ve all seen people who need our help and we all, yes all of us, have not been as helpful as we could on one occasion or another.

Sometimes we need physical strength to do the right thing, sometimes we need strength of spirit, and sometimes we need spiritual strength to do the right thing, the rich man in our parable failed to exercise this when he could have, and look what happened to him.

 

 

Dear loving Lord

You know my heart

You know where I walk

Where I stumble and fall

I look to you now

To change me and to build my character.

Help me to be strong, to care for my neighbour

To be alert to their needs

Let me grow in confidence to help their needs

Help me to value their needs and to share what

I can with them

We ask this in Jesus, Amen,