Twenty Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

'If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.'"

-Luke 16:31

When I look over the Gospel reading for this Sunday, the famous parable of Lazarus and the rich man, I am struck by the last line.  It reminds me of the need to live by faith, and not by sight, as the old hymn goes.  This is a bit ironic, I admit, since one of the main points of the reading is that the rich man was too “blind” to see the poor man at his door.  Surly it doesn’t take faith to see a person in need and help them?  There are people who help others for strictly humanitarian reasons, this is true.  But the point I’m trying to make is that if we keep a division in our minds between faith and everyday life, we can miss where God is talking to us in the ordinary events of our life.

I am a firm believer in miracles.  There are some people, we call them “demythologizers,” who strip the Gospels of their supernatural character and explain everything that the Lord did or said in human terms. These are the people who say that the multiplication of the loaves never happened, that the people there simply shared the bread they already had; that Jesus didn’t actually multiply anything.  But all they are doing is robbing the Word of God of an important message that it has for us.  In the life of Jesus miracles doubled as prophetic acts, pointing us to what life in the Kingdom of Heaven will mean.  They were also signs to the people of his age, well versed in the prophetic scriptures, that He was indeed the promised messiah.  For us today miracles are a confirmation of the faith we have already.   Necessary? Maybe not, but they are a generous gift to those who believe.

All the same miracles are rare, and are not meant to be the foundations of our faith.  Jesus was impatient with those who were constantly seeking signs and wonders, and wouldn’t take His word for it.  Blessed are those who have not seen, were not at the empty tomb, did not put their hands into Jesus’ pierced side and yet believe.  The rich man needed a sign of some kind, and thought if Lazarus was to rise from the dead it would be just the thing to convert his brothers.  But the message is no; you have Moses and the Prophets, listen to them.  We have, as well, the four Evangelists, St. Paul and the other letter writers, the Fathers of the Church and the Magisterium guided by the Holy Spirit, handing down the Apostolic Tradition through the ages; listen to them.

We also have the gift of the Spirit in Baptism and Confirmation.  This is supposed to help shape our vision so that we can see the divine all around us, working in the world.  It does not take faith to believe a miracle, but it takes faith to believe that God is in the ‘hood, in the poor and suffering; that God is love in a world that seems to prefer hate and war.  It demands faith to see Jesus in the beggar sleeping at our door.