Welcome to Finding God in Our Hearts. The following production Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is a weekly program of deep spiritual insight on Scripture, revealing the indwelling presence of God. Monsignor Fisher is a Catholic priest, a member of the Diocese of Dallas, and founder of the Pastoral Reflections Institute, a nonprofit in Dallas, Texas, dedicated to to enriching your spiritual journey. We appreciate your listenership and if you find this program valuable, please subscribe and share with your friends. This program is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you make your donation@pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com Good morning. Today we celebrate the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

The Opening Prayer O God, who manifests your almighty power above all by pardoning and showing mercy, bestow, we pray your grace abundantly upon us and make those hastening to attain your promise heirs to the treasures of heaven through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen. A Reading from the Old Testament from the Book of the Prophet Amos, sixth chapter, first verse in the fourth through the seventh verse. Thus says the Lord, the God of woe to the complacent in Zion. Lying upon beds of ivory, stretched comfortably on their couches, they eat lambs taken from the flock and calves from the stall, improvising to the music of the harp. Like David, they devise their own accompaniment.

They drink wine from bowls and anoint themselves with the best oils. Yet they are not made ill by the collapse of Joseph. Therefore now they shall be the first to go into exile, and their wanton revelry shall be done away with the Word of the Lord. Responsorial Psalm Praise the Lord My soul A Reading from the New Testament St. Paul’s letter to Timothy 6:11 16 but you, man of God, pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness compete well for the faith lay hold of eternal life to which you are called when you made the the noble confession in the presence of many witnesses, I charge you before God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who gave testimony under Pontius Pilate for the noble confession to keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ, that the blessed and only ruler will make manifest in power in time the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, in whom no human being has seen or can see. To him be honor and glory.

Amen. The Word of the Lord. Hallelujah Verse Though our Lord Jesus Christ was rich, he became poor, so that by the poverty he might become rich. The Gospel this Sunday is taken from St. Luke 16 to the 31st verse. Jesus said to the Pharisees, there was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day.

And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores. When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. And from the netherworld where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he cried out, father Abraham, have pity on me.

Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames. Abraham replied, my child, remember what you received what was good during your life, while Lazarus likewise received what was bad. But now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented. Moreover, between us and you. A great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from one side to to yours or from your side to ours. He said, then I beg you, Father, send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them lest they too come to this place of torment.

But Abraham replied, they have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them. He said, oh, no, Father Abraham. But if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent. Then Abraham said, if they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead. The Gospel of the Lord Sam, Satan S.A.

one of the things that I have discovered late in life, and I try to teach it as often as I can. It’s the whole notion of human nature and how it evolves, how we come into the world and what we’re expected to do while we’re here. One of the most interesting things about human nature, when it’s in its more raw form, let’s say closer to where we came from in terms of the animal world. But its primary concern is self preservation. It often feels isolated and separated from others. It doesn’t have a strong sense of connection.

And its primary concern is, how am I going to survive when you go from that low form all the way up to the highest form, which I believe is the essence of all religions, but in particular Christianity really does stress it and that as we get to the place where our primary concern is for others and the reason we’re here, the primary reason we’re here is to take care of them and help them and heal them and support them. An interesting transformation. I know I’ve moved, as all of us have, who have been faithful to the tradition of Christianity, to the Catholic liturgies. If you’re Catholic and involved in that, you know there’s something positive about moving us in that direction, even if we’re not that conscious of that’s what we’re doing. But you see in people that are older a much more open, sympathetic, compassionate kind of disposition toward the world. Beautiful to watch.

And one of the things that I think is important about it is if you look at that as the primary movement of why we’re here, that we go through this process, and I would say children come into the world pretty self centered. I mean, well, they want to eat, you know, and when they’re not, they’re crying and screaming. I mean, let’s face it, it’s survival. And then we see a change. And what I want to stress then today is that this is the work of, well, I said it all religions, but I’d like you to imagine it’s the work that I help you do that I am involved in, that I want to share with you. And so I want to go to the second reading to start my reflections, because there’s something in it that is very important.

First of all, looking back into the full chapter, what we’re looking at is a kind of ordination for Timothy. And Paul is there witnessing it, and he’s being called to serve. And so there’s a strong kind of liturgical feel to this especially the ending is like an exaltation at the end of a major ceremony. Praise to God who is accomplishing this. But it’s clear that what Paul is trying to say is that Timothy made a profession in front of others and he was challenged to do something, to teach, to preach. But the thing it says that he must be dedicated to is the commandment.

Not the Ten Commandments, not the rules of the Church. No, the commandment. And I thought to myself, what is that? Well, the obvious thought first is love. But love has so many dimensions. So the one I want to talk about is what we might call sympathy, compassion, empathy, a deep caring for another person.

That’s the commandment. That’s what we’re here for. And when you look at the evolution of religion from Old Testament and New Testament, you really do see a radical change in that attitude because when Christ walked the earth, there was a. A basic misunderstanding that anyone that was in pain or disease or struggling or a beggar near your house, they were being punished by God. So, you know, you weren’t supposed to necessarily pay attention to them or do anything for them. But what’s interesting about that kind of rule in law, and it may have worked for a long time, but if you develop, if you grow and you evolve in your consciousness, you develop a thing that is a kind of visceral response to someone in pain.

We could call it sympathy. Did you ever notice when somebody tells somebody about how they went through something really traumatic, lost someone very close to them, or went through some really painful thing, and the first instinct often that comes to a person is a feeling of, of oh, I’m sorry. You know, one person told me that a person said that about their sister’s disease and they said, oh, you caused it, you know. No, you don’t say you’re sorry because you caused the pain, but you feel sorrow in you because the person is in pain. That’s sympathy. It’s a beautiful quality and it’s what we’re here to develop and understand more fully and participate in.

So let’s go to the first reading then, because it’s really connected to the gospel. It’s one of those statements from the prophets that’s a condemnation of people who are anything but sympathetic. But what I stress in this is that what he’s describing is people who are unconscious, but who are liking being unconscious and stay unconscious and party all the time. And I love the image of instead of having a glass of wine, they have a bowl of wine and so they keep themselves drugged and they keep themselves partying. And the prophet’s saying, this isn’t going to work. This isn’t what human beings are made for, so this is not going to work.

So one day it will all be done away with meaning. If you’ll just grow up a little bit, you realize that that’s not what you want to be. It reminds me of every 18 and 19 year old who loves to party. And you talk to them in their 70s and they may say, well, it was fun for a while, but it wasn’t anything they wanted to stay in. So we see this image in that first reading then of there’s something unnatural, maybe not something counter to the evolution that we’re supposed to be engaged in as we move along, that it’s not to be frozen in a particular time when it’s all about distraction. Distraction.

So then we go to the gospel. And if you notice, in Luke’s Gospel, we’ve been reading it, obviously, this whole season. And he’s interesting in these last weeks because he keeps bringing up things that are kind of shocking. Like, unless you hate your mother and father, you can’t be in the kingdom. And if you watch somebody cheat so they can take care of themselves, that’s pretty cool, because you should follow them because they do something that shows that they’re conscious of taking care of themselves. Things that.

What? It doesn’t make sense until you pursue it. But in every case, he’s trying to get us more engaged in the mystery that I call living a spiritual life. It’s not a logical life. It’s not a simple life that has black and white answers everywhere. It’s mercurial.

It’s gray. It needs reflection to live in. All right, so partying is not what we’re here for, but we’re here for something else. So this is, I think, what that we’re here for in the gospel. It’s beautiful. Love this story.

So there’s a man, Lazarus, and he’s poor and he’s diseased, and he lives on the corner of the street, perhaps where this rich man lives. And all I can say is, I don’t know if you have the same experience, but in Dallas now, if you drive to a lot of intersections, especially in places of higher income, you’re gonna find these beggars on the corner, which is sort of new to me. I mean, I’m not used to beggars in Dallas. And I don’t know what your feeling is when you see them. All I know is I can’t look at them. And I know that’s not just because I don’t want them to think that I’m reaching for my wallet.

But I just have a hard time sitting there and feeling anything like I feel, which is like I want to do something for them. And then I think, well, maybe maybe they’re faking it, maybe they’re not. And then I think, well, maybe if Everybody gave them five bucks, well, there’d be 20 of. Stop. And, you know, what do you do? It’s like.

It’s just. I hate it. I just. I don’t know. I don’t feel comfortable passing them, and I don’t feel like I’m obligated to do it. So that’s the problem.

But I feel something, and I underestimate the power of that feeling. Yeah, I’m sorry for them. But as you evolve and as you change, you also develop something else in a reaction to somebody who is in pain. And it’s not just sympathy, meaning you know and understand they’re in some kind of difficult situation and you would like to help them. Sympathy. But it evolves into empathy.

Empathy, a word that’s only been in the English language for maybe, well, since 1909. And it’s different than sympathy. Sympathy is you can tell someone’s in pain and you wish they weren’t. Empathy is you actually feel the pain they’re in. I mean, you experience it. I mean, in that moment at the street corner, I feel something like what it must be like to have no home, no place, no food.

And I. It’s an uncomfortable, terrible feeling. And I sort of try to get rid of it. And I’m beginning to realize that’s not what you do with empathy. That’s wasting it. Because there’s a mystery, a connection that we need to get in touch with that is so powerful.

So let’s go back to the gospel. Lazarus is there and he’s ignored. And I would say the rich man has a lot of diversions and he’s just not really interested. He’s never been told that he should care for these people. In fact, I would just think that there’s no real connection. When they see people like this, they just don’t feel anything.

No sympathy. And then he dies and the rich man dies. I mean, Lazarus dies, the rich man dies, and then the whole story changes. The parable. It’s beautiful. What I find fascinating is you’re told there’s a great chasm between where this man is now who suffered.

And I’m sure he had compassion and empathy for his brothers and sisters who were fellow beggars. I’m sure they commiserated and helped each other. But the rich man, he had no connection, no connection with this struggle that they were having. So I’m going to call him unconscious, unaware, just simply turned off. And when you’re turned off, when you’re not seeing who you really are, not developing your true nature, you are miles and miles and miles away, light miles away from somebody who has developed a keen sense of compassion, sympathy, and especially empathy. You’re like two different creatures.

The thing I find so fascinating about the rich man is when he realizes that he has made a mistake, he doesn’t say, abraham, please give us some water, or, abraham, please go and talk to my. Get the prophets to talk to my brothers. He asked Abraham to tell Lazarus to do it. Isn’t that interesting? I never noticed that before. Get Lazarus, who I ignored all this time.

Get him to come down and give me just a drop of water. And if he can’t do that, well, then at least go to my friends, my brothers, and tell them that this is a terrible thing we’ve done. Open them to what we should have been like. And if somebody comes from the dead, they’re bound to do it. What an ironic twist at the end of the story, if somebody would come back from the dead and tell them that everything he said was true and that he is a man filled with empathy and compassion, he would be the one. He would be the one to convince everybody.

And I think it’s so beautiful that Abraham just gives you this insight. No, if you don’t have this, what little you have, you’ll lose. No, they won’t listen. Not even if they come back from the dead. Predicting, of course, the way many responded, many Jews, to the resurrection of Jesus. But here’s the key.

Here’s the secret. The empathy that Jesus had on the cross for everybody that was there and looking at them and seeing the horrible thing they were doing to him. He said, oh, Father, I feel so sorry for them. They don’t know what they’re doing. When you have that kind of empathy and care for someone, and Jesus had it as a way of being. It was the source of all of his healing.

It healed people. Feeling someone’s pain heals their pain. I don’t know how that works. I would love to talk about it for a couple hours, but again, it’s going to get into that gray, mysterious place. But I know that’s the heart of what this story is about. The people who have suffering are more likely to be the ones who care.

The rich man was right in saying, ask Lazarus to do it, because he probably understood what it feels like to be begging for something. And so it’s a beautiful reflection on the evolution of human nature that when we get to a point where we feel truly what another goes through, we don’t have to fix them. We just know somehow that that disposition that we have for them, that connection pours life into them, the life of God in the person with empathy into the person that is in need. It’s so comforting to me. And even now, I know after this homily, which I haven’t heard before either, I don’t know if I’ll feel like I’m wasting my energies sitting there trying. I will believe I’m wasting my energies when I won’t act on the empathy I have.

I want to make it a prayer that this person is somehow gifted with whatever he needs to not be a beggar, to not be there on that corner and to have the life that he really wants to foreign Father our nature, the nature you’ve given us, if we can find it, discover it, fall in love with it, want it to develop, want it to grow into the life giving presence that you want us to be to each other, basing our power on your presence in us, but knowing that we are the instrument to bring that presence to another. Bless us with this great evolutionary gift of empathy and let us be healers, not judgmental, not angry, not afraid, but capable of bringing life to those around us. Amen. The music in our program was composed and produced by Ryan Harner for this show. Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher, a listener supported program, is archived and available on our website pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com and available anytime, anywhere and for free on our podcast Finding God in Our Hearts. You can search and subscribe to Finding God in Our Hearts anywhere you download your podcasts.

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