Lowering Our Defences

2nd Week of Lent - Thursday (21 March 2019)

Jeremiah 17:5–10. Psalm 1. Luke 16:19–31

“Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings and depends on a mortal for his life, while his heart is drawn away from the Lord. Blessed is the man who puts his trust in the Lord and whose confidence is in Him!”

Both readings of today offer a sad commentary on human nature. The prophet Jeremiah, in the first reading, laments that people could choose to depend on human beings, on mortal, transitory life of this world. Their heart is drawn away from God! “The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can understand it?”

In the gospel reading from Luke, Jesus tells us the tragic story of Lazarus and the rich man. There are some people who are so resistant to change that even someone coming back from the dead wouldn’t impress them. Most of us are not only comfortable with our habits and routines, we have certain ways of thinking and acting that we are obstinate about, even when those ways may be slowly killing us, driving good people out of our lives, or excluding us from a better quality life. 

All of us have our mind-sets or blind spots whose power comes from their usefulness in protecting an insecure ego. We construct walls around our vulnerable little worlds and defend them with everything we have. Rather than facing a problem we put up a barrier to hide it. Our efforts, however, create only an illusion of security; denying a problem doesn’t make it go away. What is unfortunate about all this construction work is that the defences we put up not only fail to keep danger out, they keep us confined and imprisoned.

As Christians we need to be embarrassed about the following statistics: The 2 billion followers of Jesus now control two-thirds of the earth’s resources and, on average, are three times better off than their non-Christian neighbours. Though the above situation may not be true in our country India, yet are individual Christians aware of contributing to the betterment of the poor? Are they aware of the terrible poverty that they see around them, and do something in their power to eradicate poverty? It’s not so much that the rich man in the parable denied Lazarus the food from his table. Rather, he simply failed to notice him until it was too late. That is a big problem with poverty. Poverty may be so visible, but it seems to be so terribly quiet. And wealth, on the other hand, seems so terribly deaf.

We need to listen. Jesus teaches that our wealth is given to us to fulfill God’s purpose, not our own. God may have given us plenty so that we might care for the poor people at our gates. What are we doing with our wealth? Are the poor and the needy being cared for?

As Christians, what are our blind spots? Do we have an active social life in order to help the less privileged? And in our personal lives, what issues, criticisms or suggestions are we most resistant about? Have we built any defences around us? What are we most afraid to change?

We need to take a chance and lower our defences. If we want to improve the quality of our lives, we need to be willing to take down some prison walls. Are we willing to change, and allow God’s Spirit to re-animate the dead and dark corners of our hearts? It’s all up to us! Blessed are those who put their trust in the Lord!