Robert Barron - Love for the Poor

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Peace be with you, friends. Pope Benedict memorably told us that the Church does three essential things. I’ve always found this really clarifying: the Church worships God, the Church evangelizes, and the Church serves the poor. Those three basic things encompass everything we do; it can fit under one of those three headings.

Now, if you look at the three popes prior to our present pope, you can see each one emphasizing one of those aspects. John Paul II focused on evangelization; he was the pope of the new evangelization, going around the world announcing the gospel. Pope Benedict himself, I would say, emphasized the worship of God. That was a primary concern of his: the liturgy, the right praise of God. Pope Francis-who would doubt it? -I think, made care for the poor a paramount concern of his. Now, mind you, all three were interested in all three, and that’s true. But there was a kind of emphasis we can see in those three popes.

Do you remember when Pope Francis was elected? One of his colleagues, Cardinal Hummes of Brazil, came up to him. He had just been elected, and he said, «Don’t forget the poor.» And he never did. He said at one point that he wanted a poor church on behalf of the poor, and that was a leitmotif of a lot of his life and teaching. In taking this on, he was standing in a very venerable tradition within Catholicism. Think of-I mean, I could name so many figures — Mother Teresa of Kolkata, Vincent de Paul, Dorothy Day, Martin de Porres, Peter Claver, Francis of Assisi, John Chrysostom, Ambrose of Milan. The list goes on and on, up and down the centuries. Great Christian, great Catholic leaders have taken concern for the poor to be absolutely basic.

Now, it stretches through the tradition, yes indeed, but all the way back to the Bible itself. I mean, Jesus-who doubts his great concern for the poor? But go back even before the Lord himself; go back to the great Hebrew prophets. Now, I bring this up because we’re reading from the prophet Amos. They all are advocates for the poor. I mean, think of Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the rest of them. But maybe Amos, above all, is one of the minor prophets; that just means he wrote a shorter book. It doesn’t mean he’s less important than the others. Amos is, I would say, the great prophet of social justice and concern for the poor.

Notice please to everybody: we sort of take this for granted. Sure, religious people are for the poor, but how revolutionary this was in the ancient world. The poor people, at the low end of the social scale, were kind of forgotten about; they were marginalized figures. The focus was on the rich and the powerful, the kings, and generals, and so on. But the great prophets of the God of Israel are advocates for the poor; they bring the poor before the minds of the rich. Listen now to Amos, and as you do, I’m saying it to myself as I preach these words. Let these words sink in. I know people are listening to me now from all over the world, but my guess is most of us listening to this sermon are, you know, fairly comfortable, fairly affluent by worldwide standards.

So listen now, all of us: Woe to the complacent in Zion, lying on beds of ivory, stretched comfortably on their couches, improvising to the music of the harp. Like David, they devised their own accompaniment. Well, you can see it, can’t you? Get that image. It’s very carefully painted: rich, self-indulgent people lying comfortably on their couches, playing the harp to entertain themselves. It’s an image of self-complacency, an image, if you want, of indifference to those who don’t have those same luxuries.

Now Amos goes on lest we miss the point. Listen. They drink wine from bowls and anoint themselves with the best oils. Yet they are not made ill by the collapse of Joseph. Well, the first part of that is just continuing this motif of self-indulgent drinking, wine from bowls. There’s something grossly indulgent, isn’t there, about that image? They anoint themselves with the best oils — caring for themselves, preoccupied with their appearance and their well-being. And yet they’re not made ill by the collapse of Joseph. What does that mean? It means they’re not bothered by the suffering of those around them. They’re not bothered by those whose lives have fallen into catastrophe.

Who are we? What are we like? Do we feel a little, I don’t know, pang of discomfort when we hear these descriptions? How often are we preoccupied with ourselves in a self-indulgent way? How often do we sort of let the sufferings of the world just kind of roll past us? The Hebrew prophets raise their voices clearly and unambiguously on behalf of the poor. Well, the first reading from Amos is just meant to set us up for the gospel. And may I say this, everybody: It’s the gospel of Lazarus and Dives. The tradition calls him Dives. The gospel doesn’t give him a name. Dives just means rich man in Latin, right? So, Lazarus and the rich man. I can tell you I’ve been hearing this gospel all my life. I remember even as a little kid I’d hear this terrible story, and it would bother me. I’d wonder to what degree am I Dives, even when I was just a little guy.

Can I suggest that’s part of the literary and spiritual power of this story? It’s meant to bother us. And I don’t want for a second, as a preacher or interpreter, to lessen that effect. No. You know, if anything, I want to heighten it. It seems to me that the gospel is very insistent upon this point. Well, we know the story well enough, right? Dives, the rich man, he’s dressed in purple. We hear that’s code for wealthy because only wealthy people could afford a purple dye for their clothes. Dining sumptuously every day, at his gate is Lazarus. Now right away it’s interesting as I mentioned; in the ancient world, especially poor people — who cares about them? They weren’t mentioned. They were forgotten about.

The very fact that we don’t know the rich man’s name but we do know Lazarus’s name -that’s telling. That shows you where the priorities of the gospel writer ultimately, and where the priority of the God of Israel is. So Lazarus is named, but he’s covered with sores. He would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. The rich man walks over; Lazarus ignores him. Lazarus would have been delighted for just a bit of the food that the rich man is eating -probably wasting and throwing away food that Lazarus would have loved. Lazarus dies, and we hear he’s carried to the bosom of Abraham. That’s Jewish code for the place of paradise. He’s brought to heaven. The rich man dies and is buried.

So again, this shocking sort of reversal of expectations -you’d expect the rich and powerful to be the ones favored. He’s buried; Lazarus is carried to the bosom of Abraham. Um, what do we make of this? Everybody, first let it bother you. It bothers me, even as I read it again, even as I preach it for I don’t know how many times I’ve preached this gospel or how many times I’ve heard it. Still, it bothers me. Can we hear the clear echo of Matthew 25 here? What’s the difference between the saved and the damned?

Well, it’s not faith or calling on the Lord’s name; people that say, «Lord, Lord,» that doesn’t matter. What matters is: I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me to drink. I was naked and you clothed me. I was lonely and you visited me in prison, and you came to see me. It’s these concrete acts of love on behalf of the poor that make the difference, everyone, between salvation and damnation. And I don’t know any softer way to put that. I don’t know any other way to interpret Amos and this story.

You know, there are a lot of sins mentioned in the Bible, to be sure; the Bible knows all about different forms of human dysfunction. But if I were to put my money on something, I’d say the one that cries out most to God is indifference to the poor. What seems to make the most difference to God is how we treat those who are most in need. And how about this now from the end of the story, when the rich man is in hell and there’s a great chasm separating him from Lazarus? He says, «Let me go back; I warn my brothers. I warn my family about this.» And we get this: «If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.»

Now here’s why I say it’s a kind of damning statement, because we say, «Well, look, Lord, just send somebody. Send someone to tell me about this.» Well, whom do we have? We already have the prophets. In other words, we have Amos. We have Ezekiel. We have Isaiah. We have Jeremiah. We have them. We read from them all the time. I just read to you from Amos. We have them. If we don’t listen to them, we’re not even going to listen to someone who’d come back from the dead. That’s a tremendous challenge, I think, to all of us. Year after year, we hear this story, don’t we? Even the most casual reading of the Bible would reveal this truth -that’s the one that seems to matter most to God.

So, like in the remaining couple of minutes, can I just emphasize something I’ve emphasized before? You say, «Okay, Bishop, I get it. I hear that message, but what do you want me to do concretely?» Can I suggest you open up Google or something and look up the corporal works of mercy? There are seven of them: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, shelter the homeless, visit the imprisoned, clothe the naked, bury the dead, and visit the sick. Seven corporal works of mercy-seven concrete things you can do on behalf of the poor and those who suffer.

It’s one thing to say, «Oh, I’m all for social justice.» Oh, so what? That’s an abstraction. «I’m for serving the poor.» Okay, great-but what does that look like? Well, it looks like-and these are derived largely, aren’t they, from Matthew 25, from the Lord’s own exhortation: feed the hungry. Are there hungry people around you? Trust me, there are. And I mean people who are really food-deprived. Wherever you’re listening to me, trust me, there are. Find them, feed them, do something. Are there people who are thirsty? Yeah, malnourished? Absolutely. Find them. Do something. Shelter the homeless.

Homelessness is a huge problem in our country. Address it somehow. Find a way. Address it. Clothe the naked. Are there people who just don’t have enough to wear? They’re that poor? Yeah, you bet. I mean, everybody listening to me right now, even those who think, «Oh, I’m in a very affluent area,» trust me when I tell you not far from you are people who are in pretty dire need.

What are you doing about it? Visit the imprisoned. Is there a prison near you? Go visit. Do something. Minister there. Make a contribution to it. Visit the sick. We all know someone who’s sick right now, don’t we? We all know someone. Write them a note. Give them a phone call. Send them a text. Send them an email. Better yet, go in person and visit. In other words, everybody, let this great lesson of Dives and Lazarus sink deep into your hearts. Let it bother you, and then do something about it. And God bless you.