Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (2025)
In the Gospel proclaimed this Sunday, Jesus paints a picture of radical reversals. The man who was treated as a castoff during his life enjoys the bliss of heaven, while the one who savored life’s pleasures ends up in torment in the netherworld.
The rich man is dressed like the wealthiest people of his day in royal purple—a color which required the harvesting huge numbers of shellfish and painstakingly processing a compound these small animals produced; his inner garments would have been made of fine linen. He lived in luxury, enjoying sumptuous meals in a house that boasted a large gate or entryway.
By contrast, the poor man Lazarus (whose name means “My God Helps”), was destitute. He lay begging outside the rich man’s home, hoping, at best, for crumbs from the man’s table. His physical body is in such a sad state that scavenging dogs licked his sores.
Interestingly, Jesus doesn’t speak of the moral life of either man. However, we know that Lazarus would have been considered “unclean” by the religious standards of the day, and this was reinforced with the licking of the impure dogs. So, why then would Lazarus have been rewarded after death while the rich man suffered? Is this merely Jesus showing a bias for the poor?
Well, the answer is found in the biblical concept of covenant. This special kind of relationship is what held together the People of Israel, because the covenant that bound them to God, also bound them to one another. So, although the social conditions of these men could not have been more disparate, they were bound together by the covenant. This means that they had responsibilities toward one another, particularly the rich man toward Lazarus.
Despite all of this, the rich man was indifferent to the needs of this covenant-brother who was lying just outside his door. And the fact that he named the poor man when he asked Abraham to send him refreshing water tells us that he knew who Lazarus was… he just didn’t care.
Even beyond this, when he was alive, he was in a position to help Lazarus, but he ignored him. But when the rich man is in need, he asks that Lazarus bring him a drop of water to help ease his suffering and then go to warn his brothers… even in death this man is self-serving.
This Sunday, the liturgy is inviting us to take up the question of how we manage our resources and the responsibilities we have toward one another. And it isn’t to say that wealth itself is bad, but rather it is complacency and disregard for others that can come from wealth that is being denounced here. When we are relatively secure and satisfied with the circumstances of our lives, it is easy for us to take blessings for granted or to think that we even have a right to the goods that have been entrusted to us.
But Scripture challenges us to see ourselves and our possessions differently, as we are called—again and again—to a sense of mutual care and responsibility. This is grounded in that sense of covenant I mentioned a few moments ago. These covenants sealed God’s relationship with the people as a people. While individuals had rights and obligations to God, these lived them out as members of a group and not just as private persons. These rights and obligations flowed from relationships with one another as well as the relationship with God. This is why the call to justice was such an important concern for the Prophets (including Amos, from whom we heard in the First Reading).
This same dynamic is at work for us who have been baptized. At our baptism, we entered not only into a specific, individual relationship with God, but we also became members of the Body of Christ—members of one another—as the Church. This means that we are also called to live out a covenant relationship with God and each other. And so, when understood in this way, we see that the readings this Sunday are challenging us to reflect on how well we have lived out our covenant bond with others.
Do we find ourselves focused simply on our individual experience of God and faith or do we recognize that our faith in God is lived out, in a special way, in our relationships with one another?
As we seek to be faithful, are we fulfilling our obligations to one another?
All of this comes down to what it means to be righteous.
And what is righteousness? It means that we live in a right relationship with God and one another.
This was what Saint Paul was calling his young coworker Timothy to in the Second Reading: “pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness. Compete well for the faith. Lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called when you made the noble confession in the presence of many witnesses” (6:11-12).
Although we don’t have same kind of pastoral responsibility that Timothy did (cf. 1 Timothy 1:3), each of us does have a part to play in the mission of the Church. This means that Paul’s words to Timothy also have something to say to each one of us. First, we must seek those things that are of God and “compete well for the faith.” Beyond that, we try to persevere in living out our individual, unique vocation of service to God and the Church and this dedication demands something of us. We have to be willing to go out outside of ourselves and live lives of service and sacrifice.
Competing “well for the faith”—living our call to be disciples and to manifest the presence of Christ in the world—doesn’t allow for selfish ambition, apathy, complacency, or indifference to the plight of others (cf. Amos 6:1a, 4-7). And this isn’t about political agendas, government budgets, or some partisan ideology. The righteousness—right relationships—to which we are called transcends those realities.
As disciples we recognize that those who are less fortunate are our sisters and brothers. If we take our baptismal-covenant obligations lightly and allow them to languish on our doorsteps, we will only have ourselves to blame when we find ourselves facing God’s judgment.
O God, who manifest your almighty power
above all by pardoning and showing mercy,
bestow, we pray, your grace abundantly upon us
and make those hastening to attain your promises
heirs to the treasures of heaven.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.
-Collect for the Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Prepared for Old St. Mary’s Church, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
