Work hard, Play hard.......

I used to live by the motto "work hard, play hard!" This has been the battle cry for many an impromptu adventure. Time and circumstance has softened my "play" time perhaps, but still, after working hard all week, what wrong is there in enjoying yourself a little? I deserve it don't I? I spend my days providing for the needs of my family and myself. Who can blame me if I want to take my family out for dinner, or if I want to have a party to celebrate an occasion?

I remember hearing sermons about this weeks Gospel regarding the Rich man and Lazarus. Many people of the time believed that God blessed righteous people and cursed sinners. So in hearing this parable, they might have said that Lazarus was in his destitute situation because, well, as a sinner he deserved it. And the Rich man was only enjoying the just blessings that are due to the righteous. There is no mention of him breaking any law, or sinning in any way. Like so many of our Lord's parables, from a human perspective, it just doesn't seem right. Why should the righteous man be condemned to eternal torment simply for enjoying what is rightfully his? If Lazarus was a sinner, ( and this is not questionable since God has "clearly" cursed him severely) what is this to the righteous man? And why should he risk defiling himself by any association with a sinner?

You may object to my harsh assessment of the way this parable may have been received at the time, but I believe that even today we think in a similar way. It's too easy to negate the plight of the poor by finding fault. How many homeless people do I pass on a daily basis, justifying my apathy for their situation with thoughts such as, "it's a scam, they're not that destitute" or "how can he afford cigarettes if he's that poor?" "She's wearing nail polish, how poor can she be?" Besides..."I'm in a rush, I have to catch a train." .....and I go home to a nice dinner and relax with my family, because I worked hard for this and I deserve it.

I found out about that woman with the nail polish; she does have a job and she's trying to get into an apartment. She's doing the best she can to keep things together, and to maintain a professional appearance at work, but she is homeless through no fault of her own. That man with the cigarettes and the drunk that I didn't mention: on top of everything else that they might be going through, if I look at them with the eyes of the soul, I can see that they are slaves to a cruel master.

O.K. maybe there's nothing wrong with me enjoying what is rightfully mine. But when I think about it, I don't think that was ever really the point. There's no great virtue in "not doing anything wrong" -  I mean, were not supposed to do anything wrong anyway, so "not doing anything wrong" isn't going to save us. It's what we do that counts. - What we do that's good, and what we do that's right.

I am sinning when I am blind to the suffering around me and then I'm lavish and even wasteful with myself. St. Mother Theresa said that shirt that has been hanging in my closet for a year that I never wore doesn't belong to me, it belongs to that homeless man in the street. I am just the steward. When I think about it, I guess that I need to focus on my stewardship skills.

How are you doing with that?
                                                          + Theophilus