Sunday Scripture Readings

Submitted on May 24, 2007

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sunday scripture

Fr. Francis X. Cleary, SJ

twenty-sixth sunday in ordinary time, september 30 Amos 6:1, 4-7; Psalm 146; 1 Timothy 6:11-17; Luke 16:19-31 OUR GOOD NEWS: We must heed the awesome danger and responsibility of affluence. "Thus says the Lord the God of hosts: Woe to the complacent in Zion!" God's Word through Amos, earliest of the prophets whose sayings are preserved, was spoken 2,750 years ago, but its relevance for us middle-class Americans could not be more immediate and disturbing. Divine condemnation is pronounced upon mindless, selfish consumerism. Amos' original audience would have protested in self-justification (and we along with them?). They were only enjoying what they had earned or inherited. What's wrong with having a good time when you can afford it? In today's first reading Amos depicted the life of selfish, irresponsible affluence with unusual concreteness. In ancient times party goers reclined upon "couches," here described as plush - ornamented with precious ivory inlays. Guests lay "sprawled" in a stupor from overeating and drunkenness. Only the finest gourmet meats (lamb and veal) were served. They consumed wine by the gallon instead of the cup, and wasted large sums on beauty aids and body care ("best oils"). Feasting called for music, but their drunken "howling to the music of the harp" and boisterous "improvising" were more bedlam than entertainment. The biblical tradition doesn't oppose enjoying the good things of life, and Jesus was condemned by the straight-laced pious for being "a glutton and a drunkard" (Lk 7:34). But through his prophet God here denounced unjustified extravagance, an immersion in pleasure-seeking that distracts the prosperous from thinking about the injustice involved, since their revelry had been paid for through exploitation and oppression of the poorer classes. Amos concluded with terrible divine judgment against well-off citizens of the northern kingdom of Israel (Samaria). Those pacesetters who insisted on the "first" ("best") body creams would be "the first to go into exile" and slavery. The orgies of the "sprawlers" would be "sprawled" ("done away with"). "Suppressed is the spree of the sprawlers!" Amos' appalling prophecy came true within a generation, when Assyria captured and destroyed the northern kingdom. Eventually his words were carried south and applied to the surviving kingdom of Judah. "Woe to the complacent in Zion (Jerusalem)!" Judah's upper classes should have heeded the lesson, but instead of being "made ill by the collapse of Joseph (Israel)," they repeated the northern kingdom's folly, bringing destruction and exile upon themselves through the Babylonian army. Jesus (Gospel) challenges us with his disturbing story of an anonymous rich man's gruesome fate. His sin was commission - selfish conspicuous consumption - but mainly omission, what he didn't do. He wasn't moved - hardly noticed - the suffering and want of Lazarus at his door. Jesus calls us to awareness of, and practical concern for, the world's needy.

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