Dear Friends,
We know that Wheel…of…Fortune…is one of our country’s most
popular, longest running game shows. Viewers cheer wildly when a contestant
accumulates gifts and money, and groan sympathetically when the wheel stops at Bankrupt.
Know where the wheel of fortune comes from? It’s an
abbreviated form of today’s parable about the rich man and Lazarus. Many early
medieval cathedrals in Europe have a wheel of fortune sculpted around the rose
window. On the left, ascending side, the man is shown rising to wealth and
prominence. At the top of the wheel, he is richly arrayed, but then on the
descending side, he begins to fall into poverty and at the bottom, he ends up
upside down with his toes sticking out of holes in his shoes or perhaps with no
shoes at all – a graphic reminder that, although the world flatters the rich
and powerful, material well-being is not automatically a sign of God’s favor or
approval.
The rich man in today’s Gospel is not accused of specific
injustices, but only of self-interest and self- indulgence, dressing elegantly
and dining sumptuously every day. His sin was that he did not even recognize
Lazarus’ longings, and perhaps even more seriously, did not even see Lazarus.
He never noticed that Lazarus was there daily.
Self-absorption – reaching for the top of the wheel of
fortune without regard for the poor stranger is a biblical theme that repeats
itself in every age. Think Scrooge, for example, in The Christmas Carol.
And in our day, think of the news commentators who encourage us in this voting
season to put into office whoever will give them more money, a better lifestyle.
For them, there is no need to think of Lazarus.
Suppose the American public did want to be faithful to Christ’s
calling on behalf of the poor stranger? The situations are complex and vast. We
feel paralyzed and desensitized. What can we do?
For one thing, we can register to vote if we haven’t done so,
and we can vote for candidates and issues that will support and benefit the
common good and the poor stranger. Voting can be a way of recognizing Lazarus. A
second thing we can do is in our daily world. We can’t end the war in Ukraine
or deal with the flooding and fires that strip people of their necessary
possessions, but we can reach out a hand to the stranger in our neighborhood,
in our own homes. SomeONE. Do we do that?
Another way of reading this Gospel is to recognize that Lazarus
is within each of us. Lazarus – whom we ignore or don’t even see. There is the
rich, valued part of us that we present to the world and there is the Lazarus
in us that longs to be fed and recognized – the part of us we do not cultivate
but which will be blessed by God when we come face to face.
The Lazarus in us is the part that has not succeeded, the
addicted part of us, the part of us that lacks self esteem or haunts us in the
night. Today’s Gospel tells us that our God values not just our successes but
our very neediness, our woundedness, our need to be fed. Today, we are reminded
that God’s love includes those parts of us that escape our best efforts – the
Lazarus within us.
So, we celebrate Lazarus today. His name means “God is my helper.”
As we try to make our world and ourselves more human, God is our helper.
~Sister Joan Sobala
