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| Migrants board a smuggler's boat in the English channel (AFP) |
Lectio
Divina:*
Meditatio:
“now he is comforted here, and you are in agony” (Luke 16:25)
Commentary (1,380 words):
Last March before Pope Francis died the Vatican announced the theme of the coming Sunday’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees (5th October) as ‘Migrants, missionaries of hope’. In a statement from the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development migrants are described as ‘often contributing to revitalising their faith and promoting interreligious dialogue based on common values. They remind the Church of the ultimate goal of this earthly pilgrimage—the attainment of our future homeland’. Pope Leo XIV reinforces these themes in his message here for this Sunday.
I think that the choice of scripture readings for Sunday 28th
September could not be more relevant to us as we prepare for this important date
in the church calendar the following Sunday.
The readings continue with the themes in Amos and Luke in
last Sunday’s set of readings. Writing
in the 8th century BCE, the prophet Amos takes on the wealthy
leaders of Israel. The fruit of self-indulgence and greed will be exile and
ruin, he said. And, so it was.
If, like me, you find the story of the rich man and Lazarus
just slightly discomforting it may be that we are really listening while
reading and hearing – no matter how many dozens of times we have heard that
same story read. In the gospel of Luke we find mercy – mercy for the
excluded, mercy for those gone astray, mercy for those in need. However,
the gospels are not all comfort for the afflicted. There is the possibly
embarrassing and awkward fact of discomfort – for the comfortable. Earlier in
Luke (6:24-25)
in the Sermon on the Mount we hear:
But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your
consolation. Woe to you who are full
now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you
who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.
The point, here, as well as elsewhere throughout the
scriptures is not that wealth or material goods are bad in themselves. Rather,
it is how we use these goods since these belong to God who is the ultimate
source and creator of all creation and since, in the heart of God, there is a
special (some would say ‘preferential’) place for the poor. And ‘poor’ means
poor and not just some vague reference to people in need.
Who are the comfortable in today’s world and who is
poor? It all depends on what comparison is being made. If someone can get
up in the morning without having a lost a night’s sleep worrying about how to
feed the children until next Thursday they are blest. If someone can be sure of
getting essential treatment in a hospital without giving up all their savings
they are blessed. If someone can read, write and participate in society they
are blest. If someone can be reasonably assured about an adequate income after
retiring from a job – in so far as anyone can be regarding the future – they
are blest. I say ‘blest’ rather than ‘blessed’ or ‘lucky’ even though economic
and social arrangements are often a matter of luck (with the saying ‘choose
your parents wisely’ being relevant here).
Does the story of the rich man and Lazarus provide grounds
for neurosis? “Should I give away 10% or 60% of all my belongings to avoid the
fate of Lazarus?”. “Am I doomed anyway so why not just live it up by having 5
cruise holidays a year?” “Should I walk down O’Connell Street in Dublin with a
wallet dispensing liberally to the dozens of homeless people who sleep nearby
every night and beg during the day?” No matter how some of us might try we are
merely offering scraps from our abundant tables. Yet, not only is ever scrap
important but each person who experiences compassion by giving or receiving is
important. In his commentary on the Gospel of Luke the popular writer, William
Barclay wrote:
Food was eaten with the hands and, in very wealthy houses,
the hands were cleansed by wiping them on hunks of bread, which were then
thrown away. That was what Lazarus was waiting for.
Poverty today in Ireland
A huge amount of food and other produce is wasted each day.
We live in a throw-away society where we pay for plastic bags only to have many
products wrapped in plastic and other material which lasts centuries. Many
people are crying out for the essentials of food, clothing, heating and some
means to participate with dignity in the community. According to the latest
Central Statistics Office data 9% of children in one of the wealthiest places
on earth – the Republic of Ireland – live in ‘consistent poverty’ while just
over 20% experience some form of enforced material deprivation.
If the story of Lazarus gives cause to be slightly troubled
and self-questioning even for a few seconds then it has achieved its purpose!
However, we need to guard against a religion of neurosis. A religion of
neurosis – especially in times past – was a powerful destroyer of spiritual
life leaving many vulnerable to discouragement and obsessive behaviour.
God was portrayed as a remote, obsessive and severe tyrant who had to be
pleased by acts of penance by us poor, miserable sinners. There is, however, a
religion of complacency which is the twin of a religion of neurosis. A religion
of complacency reduces the gospel to a set of pious moral platitudes and
guidelines – a kind of comfort blanket when times are difficult and a fall-back
‘just in case’. In this case, God is reduced to a benign and absent parent who
couldn’t care less as long as we didn’t bother him too much. But, God cares too
much to allow himself to be manipulated by human design and distortion. The
very name, Lazarus, or Eleazar in the Hebrew means God has
helped. Through Lazarus God can help the rich person to find true riches.
Day after day Jesus – in the poor – stands at our door waiting to be heard, to
be welcomed and to be joined in a struggle to rid the world of the unjust roots
of violence and poverty. There is joy in giving and this is the theme of
Zacchaeus in the 19th chapter
of Luke when the rich taxpayer willingly and happily gave half
of his wealth to the poor (at least Zacchaeus said that he would do though Luke
did not report the outcome!).
Finding real security
But, where we do find real security? The rich man in
this story of Luke was looking for material security in this life as well as
security of another type in the life after. Like modern-day Christians, Jews of
the 1st century were keen to ‘make it to the other side’. The rule is very
simple – love God with all your heart and your neighbour as yourself while we
still have the light of day and the means to do so. A time will come when the
very possibility of reaching to others in love will be taken from us.
Migrants
How does all of this connect to the World Day of Migrants
and Refugees? The reality is that
Ireland is a comparatively rich country.
The reason why so many migrants head towards Europe – be they ‘economic’
migrants or refugees from war and persecution – is that Europe and Ireland
offer opportunities and protection that are not available elsewhere. Most
refugees never make it to Europe and are located in other continents (a fact
overlooked by those opposed to such immigration) and the vast bulk of
immigration is via the normal or regular routes related to work, study or
family while refugees make up typically less than one in ten immigrants. Fundamentally, systematic economic and global
inequality driver migration including that of refugees.
Rather than building walls in our hearts and minds to keep
the ‘others’ out we need to revisit our attitudes and assumptions about wealth,
poverty and inequality. We also need to
recognise the ways in which unscrupulous forces manipulate the fact of immigration
to stoke fear, anger and even violence while taking advantage of inequalities
within prosperous countries. They convert class war into race war and all the
time dehumanise the human. I suggest
that this Sunday’s readings challenge us to the core to change our thinking and
to act accordingly.
Oratio:
God of all peoples and nations,
You journey with your children across deserts and seas,
through borders seen and unseen.
On this World Day of Migrants and Refugees,
we lift up those who are forced to flee their homes—
seeking safety, dignity, and hope.
May we never turn away from their suffering.
May our hearts be open, our hands extended,
our communities welcoming.
Teach us to see your face in the stranger,
to hear your voice in the cry of the displaced,
to recognize your presence in every migrant’s story.
Strengthen those who walk beside them—
families, aid workers, communities of faith.
And guide our leaders to build policies rooted in compassion,
justice, and the common good.
We ask this through Christ our Lord,
who was himself a refugee.
Amen.
Footnotes *
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