Thursday March 20, 2014 (Luke 16:19-31) How often today do we hear statements like “If only I could see God, then I would believe in him” or “If only I could touch God, then I would believe in him”? We think that to prove that there was a contractor who constructed the house we live in we must meet face-to-face with the contractor, otherwise we are to believe this building just *poofed* into existence on its own at some point in the past. We see a beautiful sculpture and think that unless we have the opportunity to meet the sculptor personally, then we must conclude that the beautiful bronze statue of a gazelle merely came into existence by coincidence, and that no such sculptor exists. Although Christians have different ways of addressing this issue of Divine Hiddenness (this roadblock some people have in believing in something or someone they can’t see) all Christians (who believe in the central idea of the Incarnation) will claim that God in fact did come into the universe two thousand years ago; the Creator came into his Creation, in the form of a man, Jesus Christ. God was then put to death by his creation, but rose from the dead three days later and continued to dwell among his people for forty days before being assumed into Heaven. He gave his disciples many commandments before he left, such as to “Do this in memory of me” in reference to the celebration of the Eucharist in the Last Supper, to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”, and “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature”. “Do”, “Go”, and “Go”. He sets this Early Church in motion, all the while knowing that not everyone would listen to his disciples; that even if he would have stuck around longer than those forty days that people would still refuse to believe that he was resurrected and would refuse to “do whatever he tells you”. In today’s reading (which you should read on your own to understand the context of the following quotes), the (dead) rich man begs Abraham to send the (dead) poor man Lazarus back to Earth in order to warn all of the rich man’s brothers of what death consists of if they do not spend their time on Earth living the life the Lord calls them to live. Abraham replies “They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them,” (instead of sending down the dead man, Lazarus, to proclaim the very thing that Moses and the prophets proclaimed) to which the rich man replies “Oh no, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.” Can you see where this is heading? Abraham replies “If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.” Those who claim today that God should come into the world in order for them to believe in him are making the same mistake that men two thousand years ago were making. If Jesus were to come to Earth again today I’m sure people would still refuse to believe in him. They would say Oh, well science will eventually be able to explain you. In the meantime youre just another lunatic. “If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.” Scripture tells us that our bodies are temples for the Holy Spirit; that in celebrating the Eucharist we are consuming the Bread of Life- the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ. We may have difficulty believing in a God that we cannot easily see or make contact with or understand during our time on Earth. But in the meantime, in addition to prayer, we can take advantage of the Sacraments that Jesus gave us in order to draw closer to him, God, who came into the world, suffered, died, and rose from the dead.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 17:36:22 +0000
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