A reading from the prophet Jeremiah (17:5-10)
Thus says the Lord,
‘Cursed be anyone who trusts in human beings,
who relies on human strength
and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
Such a one is like a shrub in the wastelands,
living in the parched places of the desert,
uninhabited, salt land;
when good comes it brings no benefit!
Blessed is anyone who trusts in the Lord,
with the Lord to rely on.
Such a one is like a tree by the waterside
that thrusts its roots to the stream:
when the heat comes it has nothing to fear,
its foliage stays green;
untroubled in a year of drought,
it never stops bearing fruit.
The heart is more devious than any other thing,
it is perverse; who can pierce its secrets?
I, the Lord, search the heart, test the motives,
to give each person what such conduct and such actions deserve.’
The prophet reflects on the question of trust. In whom do we put our faith: in human beings, or in the Lord? The strong language of ‘curse’ brings home just how fundamental the question is. Faith in what is human implies turning away from the Lord. This may be in the political context so familiar to Jeremiah, or in the everyday dealings of human life. Such a person is like a weak shrub in a barren wasteland, a waterless, salty wilderness. The contrasting image, for the one who trusts in the Lord, is the tree by the stream, with deep roots reaching the life-giving waters. Even in time of heat or in a year of drought, even in times of political or personal crisis, it still bears green foliage and plentiful fruit. The reading ends with the assertion that God alone reads human hearts and rewards people according to their actions.
Psalm 1 inverses the order found in Jeremiah’s words, beginning with the one who finds delight in the law of the Lord, again compared to a tree by flowing waters. The wicked, by contrast, are driven away by the wind.
A reading from the holy gospel according to Luke (16:19-31)
Jesus said ‘There was a rich man who used to dress in purple and fine linen and feast magnificently every day. And at his gate there used to lie a poor man called Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to fill himself with what fell from the rich man’s table. Even dogs came and licked his sores. Now it happened that the poor man died and was carried away by the angels into Abraham’s embrace. The rich man also died and was buried. In his torment in Hades he looked up and saw Abraham a long way off with Lazarus in his embrace. So he cried out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these flames.” Abraham said, “My son, remember that during your life you had your fill of good things, just as Lazarus his fill of bad. Now he is being comforted here while you are in agony. But that is not all: between us and you a great gulf has been fixed, to block those who want to cross from our side to yours or from your side to ours.” So he said, “Father, I beg you then to send Lazarus to my father’s house, since I have five brothers, to give them warning so that they do not come to this place of torment too.” Abraham said, “They have Moses and the prophets, let them listen to them.” The rich man replied, “Ah no, father Abraham, but if someone comes to them from the dead, they will repent.” Then Abraham said to him, “If they will not listen either to Moses or to the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead.” ’
A powerful parable, found only in Luke, illustrates the choice human beings must make between selfishness and generosity, raising the perennial issue of the rich man’s disregard for the poor at his gate. The prophets urged people to care for those in need, often accusing them of careless disregard (Amos 6). In this parable Jesus portrays not only the contrasting figures of the rich man and Lazarus, but also Abraham as the arbiter of the case. Jesus emphasises the stubbornness of the rich man, who even after death tries to bully the patriarch Abraham to ‘send Lazarus’, still regarded as less than a slave, to bring water to cool his tongue. But a ‘great gulf’ now separates the rich from Lazarus ‘in the embrace’ of Abraham. It is too late. But the rich man insists that Lazarus be dispatched to warn his five brothers, who, it is implied, are just as bad as he is. They may indeed habitually disregard ‘Moses and the prophets’, but, the rich man pleads, if someone comes to them from the dead, ‘they will repent’. Abraham is not persuaded. There is a sense of inevitability that the five brothers, and countless more like them, will continue through history to disregard the poor man, and whole populations of the poor, at the gate.
What will make us see care for the planet, and care for the poor, as God’s priorities, which we must make our own?
For those who strive to change hearts and minds, we pray.