Deaconess Norma P. Dollaga, United Methodist Church
Psalm 146:7-10
Amos 6:1, 4-7
1Timothy 6:11-16
Luke 16:19-31
There is nothing beautiful about poverty. There is nothing romantic about not having anything to feed your children while you work all day to feed the coffers of the landlords. There is nothing to be proud of impoverishment when it means rejection and denial of your humanity to cry, to grieve and to look up to heavens longing for sympathies. There is nothing gratifying about queueing in a hospital waiting for the doctor’s call to attend to your health needs amidst hundreds of sick and dying in a public hospital corridor. There is nothing lovely when hungry ones compete with dogs and cats for the throw-away from the table of the rich.
Lazarus, the poor and sick man in the gospels is these wretched poor. Lazarus is the poor man killed in the war on drugs, and his family has nothing but tears and shame. His family could not even light a candle of peace because they have nothing. Lazarus is every man and woman who lives, suffers and dies to feed the rich. Lazarus is every man and woman that construct the edifices of the wealthy, cleans up the dirt of the affluent. Lazarus is the victim of Rice Tarrification Law initiated by the “blessed” among Filipinos whose husband is the second wealthiest in the land. Lazarus is the thousands of workers living in the most insecure tenure under the labor-contracting-only scheme, and the scathing low wage that is not sufficient for a minimum/conservative living standard of Php1,004, a Family Living Wage for a family of five, as the minimum daily wage is only at P537. A wide gap of 53.5% makes the common Filipino family a modern-day Lazarus. Labor wage is just enough to make a laborer a slave for another day –coming back to work so that labor could produce more wealth for the richest in the country.
It is the hands of the poor that feed the rich, build their edifices, construct their industries. It is the labor of the poor that creates profits that bolster the wealth of the rich without end.
Poverty that produces Lazaruses is a creation of a human system that is founded on the violence of injustice, exploitation, and oppression. The imperial capitalist system creates economic policies that are geared to the further enrichment of the elite who are already scandalously flaunting their wealth. The rich needs the poor, for without the poor they would not be able to amass sinful wealth dubbed or lied about as “blessings”.
Greta Thunberg, a 16 year old Swedish activist-environmentalist who won the “alternative Nobel Prize” has bravely and prophetically scolded the world’s most powerful leaders at the UN Climate Change Summit. She said, “People are dying and ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is the money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth… How dare you! “[1]
The world’s economic policies are not helping the poor but makes poverty even more glaringly visible while the poor continue to live miserably. The bureaucrat capitalists are so much addicted to power that they plunder the people and our natural resources with their corrupt and evil ways. That is what makes poverty, and God has nothing to do with it.
The Gospel story of Lazarus reflects both a description of life of the poorest and of the wealthiest. It is not so much about reward of having a good and a hellish life that awaits after death. It is about relationships between the exploited and the exploiter. The exploiter does not feel, see, or hear. An unjust system makes the exploiter ignore the needs of those who create wealth and profits.
In a situation as this the exploiter is indifferent, cold and apathetic, lacking love and compassion. The system reinforces and calcifies deep hatred against the poor. The poor becomes invisible and are just part of the forces of production for profit.
The Lazarus story is descriptive of a slave-master relations, or oppressor-oppressed relations – that whatever and wherever the circumstances bring them, the oppressor continue to enslave the poor. In verse 24, the rich man commands the Father: “ He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’ In verse 27 he reinforces the command, “ He said, ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.”
The Psalm this Sunday has a promise to say:
Psalm 146:7-10 (NIV)
7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed, and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free,
8 the Lord gives sight to the blind,
the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down,
the Lord loves the righteous.
9 The Lord watches over the foreigner
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
10 The Lord reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the Lord.
Must we be partners with GOD in fulfilling this vision?
There should be no Lazarus in our midst.
That would be the day when exploitation is past.
Sr. Espie Principio, MM
BalikTanaw Sunday Gospel Reflection 