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What’s Around You?
Readings for the week of September 26, 2010
http://www.usccb.org/nab/092610.shtml
Walking around a modern day college campus, countless students can be seen listening to their iPods or talking on their cell phones. While walking around, they can shut off the world around them. Sometimes they do not even acknowledge other people who speak to them as they walk by. We all are guilty of this to some extent— being shut off the world around us.
In the first reading this week, those living in Zion are warned about the lives they are living. As life flies by, they enjoy the lavish things such as drinking the good wine or anointing themselves with expensive oils. They are unsuspecting and unaware of what will happen when the life they are living comes to an end. The Lord says they will be the first to go into exile when the time comes.
The same message can be seen in the Gospel from Luke. As the rich folk are eating heartily, a poor man, Lazarus, lays outside their door hoping for a few scraps of food. As they ignore him day by day, they are unaware, just as those living in Zion, of the ‘punishment’ they will receive later on. After both men died, Lazarus sits at the side of Abraham with the angels and the rich man is sent to the netherworld. As he looks up, he sees the good eternal life that Lazarus, he gets upset about his circumstance. During a conversation with Abraham, he finally realizes the faults of his day and asks Abraham to warns his relatives of the horrors that they will eventually face. He claims his family will only change if one from the dead is there to warn them. However, they have had many warnings before and they do not need another.
The second reading to Timothy ties it all together for us today. If we live our lives keeping God’s commandments, we will live good lives in both this life and the next. We have to read the signs around us as ways that we can improve our lives. This doesn’t mean we necessarily have to live like Lazarus. We, especially in America, are very fortunate to have just about everything we could ever need plus a number of things we want. What these readings are doing for us is providing us with our warning to be awake and alert to all of our surroundings, help those that need it as much as we can, and live lives that reflect the life of Jesus each day. Can’t say we weren’t warned.
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