Pilgrim progress- a disciple on a journey!

The ABBA song “Money, Money, Money”, paints a picture that all will be sunny if you had money, for it’s a rich man’s world. Yet, that’s not always the case as we see in today’s Gospel. It presents to us the story of the rich man and the poor man Lazarus. A very quick synthesis of the Gospel reminds us that wealth in itself is not bad. But wealth brings with it certain responsibilities, a certain stewardship. We must give account for how we handle the wealth God has entrusted to us. The rich man walked by the poor man Lazarus, without acknowledging him, that he existed or that he was in need.   Jesus’ parable does not tell why he ignored Lazarus, but we know how society worked then and still does: the wealthy have power and privilege; the poor are marginalized and set apart. Most of you know that my home town is Athlone. We don’t have really have beggars or homeless people on our streets there. We have some Romanian men who sit outside Athlone Castle at the Town Bridge and belt

What is the cost of following Jesus? When we’ve allowed the image of God imprinted on our souls to be disfigured by social and economic pressures, by the fear and doubt we coddle in our hearts, by the desire to be liked. When those sharp jags and rough edges that make disciples eventually become smoothed and rounded over time by the steady drip of compromises we make in life to keep peace. When the deadly burden of our possessions keep us isolated, deadened, and unhappy and the injury and violation we allow to mar our souls becomes too awful to contemplate, save us, O God. Don’t let our souls harden in the dry shell of despair, but let us feel the purity of hate- for the compromises we make, and for the fear and doubt, and for what we allow to happen to us. For this is not your will O Lord, and it is right and salutary to hate that which disfigures the soul, and keeps us from loving you with our whole hearts. Let hatred cleanse our spirits, but not devour us. And