Twenty –
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Am 6: 1a, 4 – 7 / Ps 146 / 1 Tm 6: 11 – 16 / Lk 16: 19 – 31
What makes
your life beautiful? When can you say that you have lived a wonderful and
beautiful life? For parents, to see their children grow and establish their own
families make their lives beautiful. For lolos and lolas, taking good care of
their apos make their lives beautiful. For the heartbroken, to be given another
chance to love again makes life beautiful. How about you? What makes your life
beautiful? When can you say that your life is wonderful and beautiful?
At the start
of today’s Gospel, we meet a rich man whose life was beautiful because he
“dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dines sumptuously each day.”
Anyone of us can easily say that this rich man is living a beautiful life
because he has much. However, towards the end of the Gospel, there was a turn
of events. The beautiful life of the rich man ended in tragedy. He was suffered
torment because of the flames while another man, Lazarus, was enjoying himself
at the side of Abraham.
My dear
friends, our Gospel today reminds us of an important truth in life. In order to
make our lives truly beautiful, we must spend less for ourselves, and more for
others. For our lives to be truly beautiful, instead of dressing up ourselves
with purple garments and fine linens, we try to dress those undressed. I do not
just mean to say those naked people walking on the streets. Rather, let us
clothe those whose human dignity has been undressed because of greed and
selfishness of others. Instead of dining sumptuously each day for our own
fulfillment, let us also learn to dine with others. Dining with others do not
only mean eating sumptuous food every day. Every time we eat, we always share
stories only to those people who are close to us. We do not share table with
our enemies. Thus, dining with others also means learning to open our lives to
others.
The recently
canonized St. Teresa of Calcutta once said, “a life not lived for others is not
a life.” The American spiritual writer, Thomas Merton also said, “we do not
find the meaning of life by ourselves alone – we find it with another.”
My dear
friends, our challenge today is to aim for a beautiful life by living our lives
for others, by finding life’s meaning in other peoples’ lives. The prophet Amos
in our First Reading reminds us that we must not be complacent with our lives.
And St. Paul in our Second Reading gives us the means on how to live our lives
for others by pursuing “righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and
gentleness.”
After
spending some time in the Philippines, this retired teacher went to the United
States for good. She decided to work there in the early 70’s. However, she
opted to teach in a school that was not in the city center. And for more than
40 years, she taught little children who have difficulty in reading and comprehension.
And so, this retired teacher shared with me a portion of her farewell speech
during her retirement party. She said, “I am now happy with my life. I am happy
not because I earned dollars for the past forty years. I am happy not because
of my bank accounts. I am happy not because I was able to buy a good house for
my family. I am happy because for the past forty years I have become part of
the lives of the many children whom I have taught. “
“I am happy
because I have become part of the lives of many.”
That school
teacher, indeed, had a beautiful life. Lazarus, in the end of our Gospel,
experienced a beautiful life. How about us? How about you? What makes your life
beautiful? When can you say to yourself that you have lived a wonderful and
beautiful life?
“A life not
lived for others is not a life.” “We do not find the meaning of life by
ourselves alone – we find it with another.”
Life is
beautiful if it is spent with others friends or enemies alike. Amen.
