{"id":4474,"date":"2013-10-12T14:41:07","date_gmt":"2013-10-12T13:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/?p=4474"},"modified":"2013-10-12T14:41:07","modified_gmt":"2013-10-12T13:41:07","slug":"the-ultimate-contrast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/?p=4474","title":{"rendered":"The Ultimate Contrast"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ultimate Contrast<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Our world constantly presents us with a kaleidoscope of contrasts. Some, like extremes of heat and cold, can challenge us; others, like colour and light, can enthral us. Others again, like Luke\u2019s Gospel (16:19-31) for the 26th Sunday of the Year \u2018C\u2019 featuring \u2018the rich man\u2019 and \u2018the poor man, Lazarus\u2019, can disturb, perhaps even surprise us.<\/p>\n

For Jesus and his contemporaries, two thousand years ago, a very different culture existed. However, the core of human nature then and now is not so different. To appreciate this, we need to see beneath the surface of Jesus\u2019 parable. The face value of Jesus\u2019 teaching parable we understand effortlessly without the aid of dictionaries and historians. In our day, too, there exist equally shocking contrasts between \u2018people who have\u2019 and \u2018people who do not have\u2019. Our contemporary problem is our limited understanding bounded by the visible and measurable. This is because we have become unskilled in making a proper evaluation of the spiritual.<\/p>\n

In the \u2018Lazarus and rich man\u2019 parable, many subconsciously limit their \u2018reading\u2019 to the physical, material world of those who \u2018have\u2019 and those who \u2018have not\u2019. It\u2019s as if our creator-gifted spiritual wings of insight have been clipped and, like the ravens at the Tower of London, we have forgotten how to fly even if we knew what flying entailed! [The ravens of the Tower of London are a group of at least seven individuals (six required, with a seventh in reserve). The presence of the ravens is traditionally believed to protect the Crown and the Tower; a superstition holds that “If the Tower of London ravens are lost or fly away, the Crown will fall and Britain with it\u201d]<\/p>\n

It would be fascinating to survey the Mass-attending worshippers in the UK this Sunday with a question such as \u201cWhat most impressed you in Jesus\u2019 parable in the Gospel about the \u2018rich man\u2019 and \u2018Lazarus, the poor man\u2019? How many would focus their attention on the physical, material \u2018have and have not\u2019 elements to the exclusion of the spiritual dimension that Jesus deliberately incorporates? Jesus deliberately takes us \u2018beyond the grave\u2019 to the non-physical, non-material world of eternity!<\/p>\n

Has \u2018beyond the grave\u2019 become a \u2018no-go\u2019 land for the majority of the population? If so, have we become willing participants in an alarming duplicity that chooses not to see in depth, but only the surface? If so, then perhaps we have joined those people who believe that the ravens at The Tower stay there of their own choosing because of a secure roost and three meals a day!<\/p>\n

Being a medically retired priest, I sometimes get asked what I am looking forward to. The questioners are kindly people really just trying to jolly me along and not dwell on the downsides of injured health. When I answer, \u201cWell, ultimately I am looking forward to dying and going to God, I hope\u201d, it\u2019s a real conversation stopper! Their first reaction is to try and see if I\u2019m showing signs of dementia. When there\u2019s no evidence of that, they usually say something along the lines of \u2013 \u201cO well, it will be all right. Now, we\u2019ll have to make tracks as we\u2019ve lots of people to see.\u201d\u00a0 In next to no time, they have gone! You can almost hear their comment to one another in the car, \u201cWell, he\u2019s a priest isn\u2019t he! He\u2019d have to say that.\u201d<\/p>\n

That Jesus, in the Gospel, named the poor man, Lazarus and left the rich man unnamed, is not insignificant. The acknowledgement of a person\u2019s name also acknowledges a specific duty of care. It\u2019s easier to live with a shallow (hollowed-out) conscience when the focus is a nameless statistic rather than a named person. The rich man had neither time nor space for God in his life. Jesus left him without a name because the rich man had not invited God to that level of intimacy. Had he been willing, had the rich man the depth awareness to fully invite God into his life, he would have seen and responded to Lazarus at his gate. For his part, Lazarus\u2019 only hope was God.<\/p>\n

Ask yourself how many \u2018rich\u2019 people you can identify by name. Now contrast that number with how many \u2018poor\u2019 people you know by name. There\u2019ll likely be a differential in favour of the \u2018rich\u2019.<\/p>\n

Now adjust your understanding of the \u2018poor\u2019 to include the countless, of all ages, who are suffering spiritual devastation aided and abetted both by civil legislation and the Church\u2019s own self-inflicted wounds. Satan\u2019s astute lowering of the levels of peoples\u2019 spiritual sensitivity has been achieved by devilishly clever use of \u2018smoke and mirrors\u2019. It\u2019s as if the pomp of the Last Night of the Proms and the Cenotaph quasi-religious ceremony the following morning are able to lull the British people into a false sense of security that all is well with God and the world. If this is even remotely true then we have become like the wing-clipped ravens!<\/p>\n

Increased levels of humanity and generosity in responding to the physical and psychological needs of deprived people in our day are to be applauded. But we are body and soul, not just body. The \u2018beyond the grave\u2019 element of this Sunday\u2019s Gospel text demands our attention too! If, automatically, we so filter our hearing\/reading of the \u2018rich man v Lazarus\u2019 Gospel that, without missing a beat, we resume our \u2018normal life\u2019 after Mass, then maybe there\u2019s a contrast we\u2019re avoiding. Could it be the contrast between the person I am and the person Jesus is still calling me to be?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ultimate Contrast Our world constantly presents us with a kaleidoscope of contrasts. Some, like extremes of heat and cold, can challenge us; others, like colour and light, can enthral us. Others again, like Luke\u2019s Gospel (16:19-31) for the 26th … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fr-ron-rolheiser-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4475,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4474\/revisions\/4475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}