The Gospel of Luke, chapter 16:31

The tormented rich man in today’s Gospel story came to a terrible end because he was not responsible with his wealth. Responsibility is something everyone wants. It is the high point or peak-experience of liberty. Teenagers cannot wait to come of age, to have their set of wheels and blaze their own trail to freedom. Responsibility is something to which all people are called. To be responsible means to be ACCOUNTABLE. Today’s readings are a summons to responsible living; to use the riches of this world to help rather than hurt one another.

What happened to the rich man in today’s Gospel? (Luke 16:19-31)) Why was his punishment so severe? The reading does not imply that he was guilty of making the poor man, Lazarus, destitute. What then, was the rich man’s problem? His problem was not what he did, but what he didn’t do. The rich man was irresponsible because he did not acknowledge that the gifts he had been given were not his to hoard, but to share. His sense of superiority, because of his wealth, was irreconcilable with being a human being and, for that reason, he was being disingenuous.

What about your gifts and benefits in life? Do you see your gifts as something to be shared or something to be hoarded? Too often, people tend to think that the gifts of creation (intelligence, skill, art, nature) are THEIRS alone, and that if others don’t have these gifts they should be condemned. This may be true in many cases, but what about those other people who are “gifted” with poverty, sickness, deprivation? What about the Lazaruses in life, the people who are destitute through no fault of their own?

To assume responsibility is to be accountable for our gifts. It also means casting off self-righteousness and self-indulgent arrogance. It means that going through life with blinders on, like the rich man in today’s Gospel, will not do. Being responsible means sharing what we have received from God with others so that our world may become a better place.

Fr. Hugh Duffy