We need each other

WE NEED EACH OTHER

Lk. 16:19-31

If we want to grow spiritually we cannot lead an isolated life.  We all need each other.  In today’s Gospel story there are two central figures.  One was a rich man who lived in the lap of luxury.  He wore the finest clothes and feasted sumptuously every day.  The other was a poor man called Lazarus.  He was always hungry and in need of medical care.  To exist he had to beg and many a day he longed to eat the leftovers from the rich man’s table.

Eventually they both died.  Lazarus was carried by angels to Abraham’s bosom.  It was the Jews’ way of saying he now enjoyed perfect bliss.  The rich man went to Hell.  From there he requested two things of Abraham.  The first was that Lazarus might come and dip his finger in water to cool his parched tongue.  The second was that he would return to earth and warn his five brothers not to come to this dreadful place.  He was told there was no crossing from Heaven to Hell, and that if his brothers would not listen to Moses and the prophets neither would they listen if one was to return from the dead.

What we can draw from this parable is that people need people. Lazarus needed the rich man.  He was destitute.  He needed food, medical attention and friendship.  The person who could have met all those needs was the rich man who walked past him every day.  He had plenty to eat, surely, he could have spared some food for the hungry beggar?  When he saw the dogs lick Lazarus’ sores, he could have had some compassion and given him some bandages.  When passing him he could at least have greeted him with the time of day.  It would have made a great difference to poor Lazarus, but he did none of these things.  So, Lazarus lived his miserable life and died a lonely death at the gate of the rich man’s mansion.  He looked for help and it never came.

I’m sure the rich man rationalised his attitude.  He was a busy man and was not responsible for the beggar’s problems.  Why didn’t he try and get a job?  Why did he not find a place that looked after his type?  If you want to you can always find ways to justify your position.  The heart of the matter is the rich man just didn’t care about poor Lazarus.  He was too self-centred.  He never thought of putting himself in Lazarus’s shoes.

If we are critical of the rich man’s attitude, we must first ask ourselves how well do we try to help those who are less well off than we are?  If they are not on our street, they are sure to be somewhere in our town.  One of our daily prayers should be to have an observant eye and a caring heart.  In our present world we tend to organise our personal and social lives so that we keep the unpleasant things out of sight.  Very often the better off live in one part of the town while the poorer in another part, and since we never visit their part of town, we can conveniently pretend the poor don’t exist.  We have the assurance of Jesus that we will always have the poor with us.  Lazarus needed the rich man and those who have less than ourselves need us.

We can also make a case that the rich man needed Lazarus.  I bet that thought never entered the rich man’s head.  He needed Lazarus to shake him out of his self-centredness, to open his eyes and make him see that there were other people in this world beside himself.

The same is true of us.  We need the people who need us.  They help us to grow.  Everyone needs someone with whom we can share our love, our time, our food and our money.  If there isn’t that someone in our lives, we live very self-centred, miserable and lonely lives.  We need to share the problems of others and be there to dry their tears, just as we would like someone to dry ours.

So, when we see people who are not as well off as we are and who have needs, we should look upon them not as problems but blessings.  They are there to keep us from being self-centred and they help us to grow spiritually.  In caring for them we are caring for Jesus because He has told us He lives in them.  “As long as you did it to the least of my brothers and sisters you did it to Me.”

Lord Jesus, let us never forget that there will always be people who will need us, and that we too need people if we are to grow spiritually.

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