Upset

FR. TERRY RYAN, CSP
Luke 16: 19-31
September 30, 2007

I don't much care for the word “upset” when it refers to a competition between two sides. Upset most often seems to refer to the winning person or team as being generally inept, mistake-prone, untalented, and a bit of a mess. The win is due more to the opponent making mistakes, and beating themselves. We are in competition with the power of evil every day. What if we when we die and get to the gates of heaven God meets us, and says, “Upset! How did you get here? You are a mess, mistake-prone, and weak. The devil must have been sleeping for you the escape his clutches. I'm surprised to see you here.” God would not talk that way.

Our victory over the devil is something that God knows we can do because God has given us the grace of our baptism, with seven gifts and twelve fruits of the Holy Spirit. It is a matter of our putting it all together. This past weekend the Colorado football team beat the No. 3 ranked team in the country. Many people called it an upset, but the coach did not. He said that the team would win. It was a matter of putting all the pieces together in one game. The problem with the rich man in the gospel is that he did not put all the pieces of his faith into practice.

He is a believer and he knows who Lazarus is. From his place of torment, the rich man looks up and sees Father Abraham. He is a believing Jew and knows who Abraham is. He also calls out Lazarus' name from his place of torment. The rich man has faith and probably knows his catechism, his Torah. But he lacks a humanness that would give him compassion for the suffering Lazarus during their lifetime. He does not need to be more Jewish. He needs to be more human. It is the same with us. We are baptized, and have received Sacraments of Holy Communion and Confirmation. We are plenty Christian, but not enough human with compassion when we ignore the sufferings of others.

Young persons think that this gospel does not refer to them because they do not have money. But I have seen where school children are mean to one another, where they emphasize the faults of others, gossip and gang up on others in cruel attitudes of exclusion. But baptism says that we can act otherwise. We can stop talking badly about one another, and begin to say positive things about another person. We can counter the evil ways of our classmates, by kindness and attention to one who feels a hurt. It does not mean that we are blind to the faults of others. Jesus knew the faults of his disciples, but he still attended to them and asked them to be his companions in spite of their imperfections.

We are all winners when we put the whole package of our faith, and sacraments together. The gospels are the books that tell us how to do this. Whenever we try to be nice but skip sacraments, or drop our relationship of belief in God, we are only partially living as the full human being that we can be. God has given us all the gifts we need. God believes in us. God believes that we can be a divine presence in the world for one another. It will not be an “upset” if we are. Only the power of evil will be upset.