Healing Indifference and Apathy!

Sunday, September 28, 2025

Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Am 6:1a, 4-7; 1 Tim 6:11-16; Lk 16:19-31

The twenty-sixth Sunday invites us to practice empathy and solidarity as the Christian antidote to indifference and apathy. 

The readings of the day help us reflect on empathy and solidarity as Christian counter-cultural virtues. 

While the Book of Amos primarily focuses on the social injustice, moral corruption, and religious hypocrisy of Israel, the first reading of today condemns the self-indulgent obsession of the wealthy among God’s people. Ivory beds, feasting on lambs and calves, musical entertainment, and revelry in drinking point to the opulence and indulgence of the wealthy elite, who showed scant regard for the suffering of others. Their utter disregard and indifference towards the poverty and hardship of their fellow Israelites is highlighted in verse 6: ‘They are not made ill by the collapse of Joseph.’ The name ‘Joseph’ here refers to the nation of Israel as a whole, as Joseph was the patriarch of one of the twelve tribes. By this symbolic word, Amos condemns the self-absorbed attitude of the wealthy and reminds them of their responsibility towards the vulnerable and the marginalized. In sum, the first reading offers three key insights. First, wealth has a moral and social responsibility. Secondly, the wealthy, who refuse to share their blessings with the needy, would be held accountable by God for their social complacency. Thirdly, if the wealthy fail to course correct their lives, integrating the perspective of God, God’s intervention would result in a reversal of fortune. 

The second reading highlights Paul’s exhortation on Christian righteousness. Paul uses military imagery to explain his thoughts on pursuing righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness. In essence, Paul’s instruction focuses on the moral and spiritual integrity of the disciples of Christ. For Paul, Christian faith is best manifested in being authentic witnesses to the life and message of Christ. Hence, as regards Paul, if Christian life is not counter-cultural, it does not amount to saying we persevere in our faith. Christians remember Christ best when they make it visible in their actions. Thus, holiness in Christian life is made distinct through moral and spiritual integrity. 

Today’s Gospel highlights the theme of Divine Justice through the story of the Dives and Lazarus. 

The story demonstrates that while some are blessed with a life that keeps them above their needs, others battle hard even to fulfill their daily basic needs. 

However, having shown the reality of human life, Jesus underlines how divine justice works in favor of the poor, oppressed, victimized, and marginalized. 

Accordingly, there are at least five points for our reflection from today’s Gospel. 

1.Jesus’ way of reassuring humanity of divine justice that works in favor of the suffering starts with his method of storytelling itself. Jesus only names Lazarus, the poor man, and not the indifferent Dives, who failed as a neighbor to the poor and suffering Lazarus. The justice of God upholds the poor while showing the unmerciful their rightful place.

2. While constructing his story, Jesus shows that Lazarus was ‘at the door’ of the rich man who did not even raise his eyes to see Lazarus and recognize his pain and misery. But when he finds himself in the place of torment, the rich man could spot Lazarus even when the latter was ‘far off.’ We should note that this is the first time that Jesus says the rich man raised his eyes to see Lazarus. By this, Jesus underlines that the failure of the rich man to recognize Lazarus’ misery was not accidental but intentional.

3. Jesus shows the rich man to be more exploitative when he tries to take advantage of the situation of Lazarus. The rich man wants Lazarus to run errands for him twice: once to cool his tongue and next to warn his five brothers. Jesus shows that even from the place of torment, the rich man could only think of ordering Lazarus around without showing any sign of repentance. Though he was dead, the rich man’s arrogance never died.

4. Jesus weaves the story in such a way that we understand how wealth, which is a blessing of God, can turn into a curse if we do not put it to the right use. The rich man had five brothers. From the way he persuades Abraham to send Lazarus to his household to ‘warn’ all his five brothers, we can understand that, in all likelihood, the brothers of the rich man must have been uncharitable like him. That is why he wants Lazarus, who is ‘someone from the dead,’ to be sent to warn them. By this, Jesus shows that wealth can corrupt us to the extent of forgetting our obligations towards the poor.

5. Finally, Jesus helps us realize how the reversal of fortune itself becomes divine justice. Or divine justice is about the reversal of fortune. While the fate of the rich man is made a lesson for all who are like him, the blessing of Lazarus comes as a consolation to confirm the fact that God sides with the afflicted and marginalized and always acts on their behalf. We understand that in Lazarus, God was a fellow sufferer and victim, and the rejection of Lazarus was the rejection of Godself. God takes the suffering of the poor very personally and never fails to deliver justice.

In sum, the story of the Dives and Lazarus is the best example of divine justice at work. 

The readings of the day leave behind beautiful insights for action. 

1. Christian faith is not tied to ritual obedience or churchy behaviour. It is rather a ‘faith that does justice.’ Should we overlook this, we lose the very grammar and foundation of our faith. 

2. Solidarity is central to Christian faith. A culture of empathy and solidarity is the antidote to the culture of death that victimizes the poor and downtrodden. More importantly, it is a call to rise above the feeling dimension and orthodoxy and emphasizes orthopraxis. 

3. Pope Francis was fond of promoting ‘a culture of encounter’ to foster compassion, connection, and dialogue instead of indifference, division, and conflict. Neighbourliness is about assuming the vulnerability of others. Social transformation is possible when we encounter the other as s/he is and put ourselves in their shoes. 

Let us pray that we may do our part to end the culture of indifference through Christian solidarity and charity. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar