The Destructive Power of the Sin of Omission
Every now and then someone tells me, usually in the confessional, that they haven’t committed any really bad sins. “I’m a good person,” they say, “I haven’t murdered anyone or sold weapons to terrorists.” But this attitude is not a Christian attitude. Jesus teaches us in the Gospel today that salvation and eternal life are not just about avoiding the sins. That’s a negative approach to life.
Being a Christian means living like Christ, living for his Kingdom, living for others. Isn’t it interesting that when Jesus was asked which were the most important commandments, he didn’t choose the negative ones, the “thou shalt not” ones. Instead he listed two positive, commandments: love God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself.
The rich man in the parable was not an axe-murderer, a mafia boss or the head of a human trafficking ring. He had no particularly damaging “sins of commission” on his résumé. He was a pretty good guy. And yet, he failed to enter into eternal life. Why? Because of his “sins of omission”. Day after day, he closed his heart to a neighbor who was in dire need of his help. He spent his life becoming an expert in self-centeredness. And since heaven is all about self-giving, not self-seeking, he found that he was simply unfit to spend eternity in heaven with God.
Worldly Success Can Be Dangerous
The rich man in the parable was a complete success in the world’s eyes. Jesus says he dressed in purple, which was the symbolic color of wealth, privilege and power, because the dyes that were used to make purple cloth were extremely expensive. Jesus also says that he wore fine linen. Linen came from Egypt, and that was very expensive too.
Lazarus, on the other hand, was a complete failure in the world’s eyes. He was utterly helpless, crushed by poverty, incapacitated by sickness and disease. What’s more, in ancient times, those characteristics were interpreted as a punishment from God. So in the eyes of the world, Lazarus was not just an economic failure, but a moral and spiritual failure too.
Jesus uses these two men to teach us one simple lesson: worldly success can be dangerous. It can make us forget that we need God, which in turn makes us callous towards our neighbor. Jesus doesn’t condemn the rich man for his success. Instead, he condemns him for how he reacted to his success. He had allowed it to make him self-centered, complacent and arrogant. Worldly success had blinded him to the needs of others and deafened his ears to the voice of God and the cry of the poor.
We Are the Five Brothers
What character does this story ask us to identify ourselves with? The rich man? No. Then how about Lazarus? Again, the answer is No. The truth is, this parable is telling us that we are the rich man’s five brothers because we have Moses and the prophets, and above all, Jesus, to tell us how to live God’s two great commandments: Love God and love our neighbor. We’re not told whether the five brothers changed their lives around. Why? Because we are the five brothers, and our personal story isn’t over yet.