Today's gospel is demanding in its message but it is contained within a very upsetting context. A rich man who has ignored a poor man at his doorstep dies and goes to Hell. He tries to negotiate some relief. When it is revealed relief is not possible, he asks that the poor man he ignored in life return to warn his still-living brothers. He is told his brothers have the wisdom of Moses and the prophets to draw on the man says that is not enough. He is told that a man who will not heed the prophets will not heed a man returned from the dead.
His concern for his brothers is winning. One feels for the man. And it makes the reader think of the man's crime; what has he done to deserve this? Was it his wealth? His lack of charity?
Christ, as always, is drawing a line between the material and spiritual world. Wealth is not the point. Even the accumulation of wealth is not the point. It is the satiation. The fullness. The satisfaction with the rewards of life. The rich man is not doomed because he is rich, he is damned because he is content, content with the material world. His glass is full, filled with the wrong things and the spiritual world is crowded out. Strangely he is content to look no further. The unsuccessful poor must always look for more.
This is a riveting message: We must be intellectually restless to fulfill our lives. The spiritual in us demands some unease, some need to search. Success in the world must be managed to allow for the spiritual.
And then the zinger. The brothers will not head the prophets. Nor will they head a man returned from the dead, so great is the hold of the world.
Christ sounds almost bitter.
His concern for his brothers is winning. One feels for the man. And it makes the reader think of the man's crime; what has he done to deserve this? Was it his wealth? His lack of charity?
Christ, as always, is drawing a line between the material and spiritual world. Wealth is not the point. Even the accumulation of wealth is not the point. It is the satiation. The fullness. The satisfaction with the rewards of life. The rich man is not doomed because he is rich, he is damned because he is content, content with the material world. His glass is full, filled with the wrong things and the spiritual world is crowded out. Strangely he is content to look no further. The unsuccessful poor must always look for more.
This is a riveting message: We must be intellectually restless to fulfill our lives. The spiritual in us demands some unease, some need to search. Success in the world must be managed to allow for the spiritual.
And then the zinger. The brothers will not head the prophets. Nor will they head a man returned from the dead, so great is the hold of the world.
Christ sounds almost bitter.
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