Amos 6:1, 4-7 / 1 Tim 6:11-16 / Luke 16:19-31
For those of us who love art, or know something about art, then we would also know the names of famous artists.
So here are the names of some art pieces and let us see if we know who is the artist is. They are all by the same artist anyway.
So here it comes – Sunflowers; The starry night; Irises; The potato eaters. So, who is the artist?
Yes, it’s Vincent Van Gogh. His masterpieces range from US$50 – US$100 over million dollars.
For those of us who love art and can appreciate art, then we would certainly love to have one of the masterpieces by Vincent Van Gogh hanging in a prominent place in our home. Yes, we would like to have a US$50 million masterpiece from Vincent Van Gogh in our home.
But would we like to have Vincent Van Gogh himself in our home?
If we know something about the life of Vincent Van Gogh, then we will probably understand why we might not want to have Vincent Van Gogh himself in our home.
Vincent Van Gogh lived from 1853 – 1890. In his lifetime, he produced 2000 artworks. But he had very little success as an artist.
In fact, he only sold one painting “The Red Vineyard”, for less that US$2000 in today’s price.
Besides that, he was also temperamental, depressed and also difficult to get along with, and other things besides. Then at 37 years-old, he took his own life. It was only after his death that his works became famous and renowned.
So that is why we won’t mind having a multi-million-dollar painting by Vincent Van Gogh at home. But we certainly won’t want to have him in our home.
Similarly, we don’t mind having a Bible in our home. In fact, we should have the Bible, the Word of God, at home.
But, would we welcome Jesus, the Word made flesh, into our home? We would say – Of course, we want to have Jesus in our home.
But Jesus does not come alone. Because He comes along with His close friends. And who are they? Well, they are the poor and helpless, the problematic and difficult people, the Vincent Van Goghs.
We shouldn’t be surprised that these are the close friends of Jesus. Because the Bible tells us that God is on the side of the poor and needy and helpless.
Indeed, God is closest to the poor and helpless, the weak and the lowly, the defenseless and the oppressed.
At least in today’s 1st reading, the Responsorial Psalm and the gospel tell us that. And we must see it!
Yes, God is for them. God cares about them. And God will console them. If not in this life, then it will be in the next.
God will console them and comfort them in His bosom and wipe away every tear from their eyes.
That was what happened in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.
We can call that a reversal of fortunes, and the reversal is not temporal; it is eternal.
Although it is just a parable, it makes us see that the reversal is for real.
It was real enough for the rich man. In the flames of agony, he looked up and saw Lazarus and even knows his name.
While on earth, he certainly saw Lazarus, or at least he knew he was at the gate. But he just chose not to see, not to know, not to care.
But in the flames of agony, the rich man saw. Yes, he saw, but it was too late, and it was forever.
In Singapore, we don’t usually have beggars or destitudes or Lazaruses sitting at our doors.
Yet we cannot say that the poor and needy do not exist.
Just come every 1st Sunday morning at the old parish hall and we will see the members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul at work, distributing rations to the poor and needy.
And we will see for ourselves who are the poor and needy, the helpless and the rejected. So we can’t say that we didn’t see, or we don’t know.
Or maybe we saw, and we knew, and we feel that we can do nothing about the multitudes of poor and needy and helpless.
Granted that it is an immense challenge, but let’s talk about Mother Teresa and her favourite number.
Most probably, her favourite number is the number 1. And the following quote from her might tell us why it’s 1.
She said : “I don’t agree with the big ways of doing things. Love needs to start with the individual. To love a person you must make contact with that person. To love the poor you must make contact with the poor.
When you do that, you cross the enormous divide between you and the poor, and it’s somebody you have actually touched.”
She continues by saying : “I look at the individual. I can only love one person at a time. I can only feed one person at a time.”
So most probably, Mother Teresa’s favourite number is 1. For her it is one person at a time.
So the Word of God in today’s readings makes us open our eyes.
God is not asking us how rich we are or how much we can give to the poor and needy.
Rather, God is asking us this : How much do we care? How much do we love? How much do we want to see?
And we don’t have to see far, see wide or see too much.
Let us look at the one who is at the gate.The one who is poor and needy. The one that we can help.
And that one may not be outside the gate. That one may be within our gates.
But we may have become numbed and indifferent.
Let us listen to the voice of God prompting us to see, to care and to love the one who is poor and needy and helpless, the one who is difficult and problematic, the Vincent Van Goghs.
Yes, they are poor and needy, they may be difficult and problematic, but they are God’s close friends.
And it is they who will lead us into God’s bosom, forever.