26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily (2025)
26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Amos 6:1a, 4-7
Psalm 146:7, 8-9, 9-10 (1b)
1 Timothy 6:11-16
Luke 16:19-31
September 28, 2025
Amos speaks as a prophet of the Lord to the people of the northern kingdom before it falls to Assyria.
Amos speaks to those who have become complacent in their faith. He speaks to those who are rich with “beds of ivory…stretched comfortably on their couches” where they eat gourmet lambs and calves and “anoint themselves with the best oils.”
They enjoy a high standard of living. So, they think everything is fine. They error by looking at only their own lives. They fail to see the problems of others. They fail to see that Israel is about to collapse. They ignore what God says to them through the prophets.
The northern kingdom would fall to Assyria. Later, the southern kingdom would fall to Babylon. They would lose their homes. Many would be taken away in exile.
Did the people learn anything from this?
Let’s fast forward over 700 years. “There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day.” He was rich. He had what he needed. All is well…right?
No, all is not well. The rich man failed to notice the poor man “lying at his door.” The rich man had plenty of worldly goods but he failed to notice Lazarus at his own doorstep. He did nothing to help Lazarus. Who do you fail to notice that you could help?
The day came when both Lazarus and the rich man died. In his earthly life, Lazarus received what was bad. When Lazarus died, God made things right and send angels to carry Lazarus to the “bosom of Abraham” where he would enjoy eternal life.
The rich man…the rich man was sent to the “netherworld where he was in torment.” He had received what he sought in this world without proper faith, so in death he received the torment of Hell.
Part of the torment the rich man faced was that he could see Abraham and Lazarus in Heaven but a great chasm kept him from joining them.
The rich man pleads for Abraham to send Lazarus with water to cool his tongue. That was not to be for the thirst he felt was part of his torment.
He should have known better. He called Abraham “father.” So, we would suppose he was a Jew, but he did not live according to our Lord’s teaching.
Do you live according to God’s teaching or do you follow worldly ways?
The way you choose determines where you will spend eternity. There are consequences to our actions. Of course, God stands ready to forgive us if we repent and let go of worldly ways.
Moses and the prophets had taught much. Jesus teaches us much. The Holy Spirit seeks to guide us. Are we paying any attention?
Do not be like those who were complacent in the days of Israel. Do not be like the rich man who failed to help Lazarus at his own doorstep.
Maybe they didn’t mean to ignore the needs of others. It might be more a matter that they were too absorbed in their own lives to notice the needs of others around them. Intentional or not, they failed to notice the needs of others they could have helped.
Do we notice the needs of others around us? Do we notice the hunger in our community for food? Through our volunteers, our Community Table ministry provides a hot meal for them. Do we see their hunger that goes beyond physical food? Our Community Table also seeks to provide accompaniment, letting them know someone cares.
Likewise, our pro-life ministries show our care for the people who receive what is donated in our annual baby shower, and our baby bottle campaign and those who participate in the Walk for Life to support the Mosaic of the Southern Tier.
There are other ways to help in our community like Habitat for Humanity.
What do you do as a child of God to “pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness“?
If we want to “lay hold of eternal life,” we need to love God and to love our neighbor. We need to provide hope for others.
If we work together, we can bring hope to our neighbors and, as Paul says in Romans 5:5, “hope does not disappoint.”
To have hope, we need to look beyond worldly things. We need to look to God for true hope that “does not disappoint.”
We need to look beyond ourselves. We need to see ourselves as one with those in our local community. To bring hope to the world, we need to look beyond our own parishes. We need to understand that we are called to be one with our diocese and one with the Catholic Church across the world. Sometimes we speak of our diocese and the Catholic Church in the third person. This is a mistake. We need to see ourselves as one working together. Then, together, we can bring hope to the world.
One way we can help beyond our own community is to support our diocesan CMA. The theme this year is Together We Bring Hope…and hope does not disappoint. People don’t always the diocese as part of our identity. If we want to change the world for the better, we need to see ourselves as one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. Then, together we can bring hope to the world.