Ukrainian Catholic ChurchAustralia, New Zealand and Oceania
Homily by Fr. Zenon Racki on the Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost
October 19, 2024
May the good Lord God be with us all and bless us and our families on this wonderful holy day — the day of Sunday, the day of poor Lazarus, who teaches us today to live not only for ourselves, for our “I,” but for all people, especially for those who are poor.
Glory to Jesus Christ! Dear brothers and sisters in Christ!
Today, as I read the lines of the Gospel of the 22nd Sunday after the Descent of the Holy Spirit and reflect on them, I am sure that one day the moment will come when the Lord will ask each of us, “What did you do for Lazarus? What did you do for the needy? What did you do for the poor?”
Reading this parable told by Jesus Christ, we can see that the Saviour does not say that the rich man was an evil rich man or a sinner. Probably, this rich man did not push Lazarus, call him insulting names, compare him to the worst people in the world, and perhaps even order his servants to drive him out of his yard or from the place where he was sitting near his house.
On the contrary, the rich man may have allowed Lazarus to beg at his gate, occasionally giving him a coin or allowing him to eat scraps from his table. This rich man gave Lazarus the opportunity to survive, and to some extent, perhaps, he felt like a benefactor because he lived and did not die in his yard. The rich man’s sin was not in what he did for Lazarus but in what he did not do for him.
If you think about it, not much has changed since Christ told this parable over two thousand years ago. The world still often lives by the law of strange rules, where the stronger survives at the expense of the weaker. The reality is that there have always been and probably always will be rich people and poor people in the world. Some have excess, while others struggle to survive from day to day.
We will probably say that it is not always our fault that we live in conditions of considerable prosperity compared to many other countries in the world. We do live in a rich Australia. Just as the rich man gave Lazarus crumbs from his table, each of us, each Australian, sometimes donates to the poor from our income. Statistics show that in Australia, Christians give to the poor in an amount equivalent to the cost of one meal at a fast-food restaurant. That’s how much they give to the poor in a year. Let’s think about this, because as we see in Jesus’ parable, everyone will have to stand before God in judgment.
Finally, as we remember the person of Lazarus today, it is important to note that in the history of Christianity he has often been considered the patron saint of the sick, especially those suffering from serious illnesses or leprosy, and many Christians have great reverence for him. It is very interesting that in some places in the Western Church, Lazarus is also the patron saint of dogs, because, as we read in the Gospel, dogs came to him and licked his wounds. Some churches honor the memory of St. Lazarus and bless dogs on this day when they read this Gospel. And we know that dogs are truly man’s best friend. They don’t care whether you are this or that, rich or poor, but they are your closest friends.
May the good Lord God be with us all and bless us and our families on this wonderful holy day — the day of Sunday, the day of poor Lazarus, who teaches us today to live not only for ourselves, for our “I,” but for all people, especially for those who are poor.
