The Needy
Need Us and We Need Them The Needy Need
Us and We Need Them The Needy Need Us
and We Need Them

The Needy Need Us and We Need Them

The readings at Mass this Sunday are all about sharing with the poor and needy - or not sharing, in the case of the Rich Man in the gospel, who does not even notice the poor man Lazarus until the afterlife!  Which is why Bishop Robert Barron tells a tale of how Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago, once told a group of generous donors that the poor need us to keep them out of poverty, but that we need the poor to keep us out of hell!  If you like, there is a mutual dependence with a (disproportionate) lot riding on it for both parties!

Like last Sunday, Amos is heard in the first reading at Mass.  He is what we call one of the Minor Prophets - not as famous as the Major Prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah or Ezekiel, with a book that is shorter than theirs - but nevertheless important.  Historically Amos is the oldest of the prophets in the Bible, the eighth century BCE. He was very critical of the political and religious authorities of the day - a pretty dangerous attitude to hold.  Then, as now, there were people who spent their lives toadying to power - praise of government, King and establishment, kissing the approved writers, the court theologians and the religious figures who were all too happy to justify whatever the ruling class did.  Then there were people like Amos, unafraid, or afraid but still courageous enough to speak truth to power because of the ways power ignores those in need.  Amos intuits that the essence of God’s law is loving compassion for the poor, the neglected, the widow, the orphan (here we are meant to substitute the categories of people who are on the margins of our own society, Church, workplace and the other circles of which we are part). How do we love those in need around us?  Pope after Pope has said that we can tell the health or sickness of a society, including the Church, by how it treats the weakest of its members.  Amos criticises those who do not realise that liturgy, prayers, singing, worship of God and the other stuff we consider to be ‘religion’, is meant to lead us to the point where we become better at loving others, at caring for those in need, thereby loving God.

In the gospel this Sunday, Lazarus is at the rich man’s gate. Here we are being challenged to notice where we turn a spiritual blind eye.  There will always be need on our own doorstep and within our circles.  Even if it’s not material need (though it is there if we look), there are plenty of people at work or in our social circles who are “poor” in other ways.  There are people lacking in spiritual ways.  People who are lonely; who are worried sick about their loved ones; who are struggling with relationships, with kids, with grandchildren, with their spouse; who have got themselves into trouble in some way at work, or within a relationship, etc.  Do we notice?  Have we got the eyes to see?  Have we enough compassion (not meddlesomeness!) to ask?  One of the points of this Sunday’s gospel is that our own lives being okay can make us blind to the needs of those whose lives are not okay.  We stop noticing because we are doing just fine.

Jesus says in the gospel that we put ourselves in danger by not noticing others in need because we will answer for this. Our eternal destiny is to be connected to each other in Heaven, because we are creatures of the same Creator and therefore cosmic siblings in God.  If we are not bothered about building up that connection, that family, here and now this side of death, well we will not take our place in that family later, the other side of death. That’s a pretty key lesson emerging from this Sunday’s gospel.  (Of course, I am not unaware of nor unsympathetic to the question of why God set the world up so it could potentially unfold this way, with haves and have-nots, but that’s another thought for another weekend!) The test of any authentic religious conviction is its commitment to building up, here and now in this world, the relationships of love that constitute the family we are destined to be in another world.  Build up the family now and we get to be part of the family then. Or not.  It is important not to misunderstand this gospel.  Jesus isn't saying that wealth is bad, nor is he saying that the poor are virtuous and the rich are not. There are plenty of rich virtuous people. Furthermore, the Church sometimes idolises poverty but it also knows poverty isn't always beautiful. Looking at some of the areas I knew as a child or worked in as a young priest, I am not convinced that poverty always leads to virtue. A lot of violence, substance abuse, sexual irresponsibility and ugliness can be found on the poorer side of town (as well as among the bored rich, of course).  The rich are often no worse (or no better) than the poor, in that sense.  But where the rich are often much worse is in spiritual perception - they don’t SEE Lazarus, the poor man at their gate.  When we are relatively rich, we have a massive incapacity to even see the poor. 

Gustavo Gutierrez, a famous priest-theologian who worked among and on behalf of the poor all his life, acknowledged how overwhelming the problem of poverty can be for us all. His advice, therefore, for each of us runs something like this: “The question is not, what can we do, nor what can one person do, but what can I do?  So, at the very least make sure that you always have at least one concrete needy person in your life that you’re in touch with and looking after!” When we leave this world and stand before God, having had that one Lazarus in our life will be better than none!! To adapt the words of Cardinal George, that Lazarus may keep us out of hell! LOL!

A final point, and to quote our Sisters of the Immaculate Conception: “loving service” of those in need may keep us happy in this world too!  To be healthy and happy, we need to give away some of what we have.  Wealth and plenty that are clung on to always corrupt the one doing the clinging.  We become addicted and any addiction is bad for us. Any gift not shared usually turns sour - especially the gift of life itself, the gift of our time on this planet (because life is toute de charité). So we need to love the needy not simply because they need it, and not simply to keep us out of hell/get us to Heaven, but also  because unless we give to the poor, we cannot be happy and healthy ourselves.  A spin-off from our generosity towards others is freedom, spiritual leanness and joy!  Once our plenty (be it money, intelligence, fame, prestige) reaches a certain point, we need to give some of it away - i.e. use it to love others.  Yes, because others need it and it is the right thing to do - but also because our own health and happiness will begin to deteriorate if we hoard for ourselves.

The needy need us, but we need them. They are our guarantee of happiness in the next life and an aid to health and happiness in this life. Do I notice Lazarus? Is my life always all about me - a life lived with a self-centred, self-aggrandising pride?  Or do I live in cheerful, self-forgetful humility?   Where am I heading?