The Broken Bricks

(A Reflection on Lazarus and the Rich Man Lk.16.19f)

In the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man Jesus seems to mock our purple and fine linen, our life of ease and comfort, our love of wealth, and our richly laid tables.

Despite Jesus’ strict warning, ‘This shall not be so among you’(Mt.21.26), we continue to have our purple caps and red buttons as symbols of power and authority. The one we have professed to follow is the one who stood before Pilate like Lazarus covered with sores, clothed in rags, and crowned with thorns. He was nailed to a cross, forced to satiate his thirst with gall, and buried in a borrowed tomb.

Jesus is Lazarus bearing witness eloquently and simply to the truth that money, power, position, and wealth are a lie instead suffering, cross, pain, deprivation and simplicity are the truth. The truth is on Jesus’ side. Falsehood on Pilate’s side.  Pilate asked the question, “What is truth?” He thought he who had power, authority, money, influence, army, palace, purple, and fine linen was the truth. Whom do we follow? Truth or falsehood? Facts or fake? God or mammon? Lazarus or the Rich Man? Jesus or Pilate?

The rich man living in a mansion, dressed in purple and fine linen, eating the best of food and drinking the choicest of wine was insensitive to the needs of poor Lazarus who lay outside his gates. The poor man wished for the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Even that, he was denied.

There are many who follow the rich man and continue to deny even the scraps to the poor. Scraps take many forms.  I know of a poor man struggling to build four walls and a roof over his head for a small house to shelter his family. Near the village, there was a rich man building a four-storey building with funds he had obtained for the upliftment of the poor villagers. His stated goal, no doubt was the education of the poor. As the big embellished building was being completed the poor man one day went to see it.  A JCB was at work leveling the place to make a path to the building. The poor man  seeing how the broken bricks and scraps of iron pieces were being covered under the mud painfully sighed and said, “ If I only could have those broken bricks!”

Another rich man got a project approved for the education of the poor villagers. One of his friends who was helping the poor children in one of the villages asked him if he could assist two helpers who were voluntarily coaching the poor children. The rich man thought it over and finally agreed to contribute one thousand rupees a month. He thought he was being very generous and making a gratuitous gift to them by giving a thousand rupees a month! At the same time the rich man had no scruples to spend thirty times more just for an evening entertainment with his friends! He too had forgotten how and in whose name the funds had been collected. Even the scraps he promised had to be reminded again and again because he was busy taking flights to collect more data for more projects!

At the project-making stage, we are very much aware of how many children there are in our mission centers, and how uneducated they are, and of our obligation to those on the periphery. We tell our sponsors how we are unable to reach the villages due to a lack of vehicles, and how helpless we are to educate them due to the lack of a place.  But once our projects are approved and the money is in our account, I don’t say we use it for ourselves, but we tend to forget in whose name and for what purpose we received the money. The mission centers in whose name we got the fund continue to languish. The children in whose name we requested the help remain uneducated. The teachers for whom we requested help get the scraps. Our Catechists continue to long for ‘the broken bricks’ while ‘the rich man’ builds memorials more to perpetuate his name and display his wealth than for the needs of the poor. The mission stations are more a means for statistics for projects than a genuine interest in the development of the poor. 

 The only place some of the mission centers find mention is in the list of those who have not contributed to the Mission Sunday Collection. All through the year, no one seemed to have any interest in these centers, no effort to find out if people had priests for mass, if Catechism was being taught if children were being educated.  Some centers have been disowned by authorities with the excuse that the names of the baptized are not recorded in the Register. But when it comes to Mission Sunday Collection even these disowned centers find a place!

 Wealth blinds us to humanity.  Often the one in command of money lives far from beneficiaries in distance and mentality. They suspect their helpers will take advantage of their wealth. They become insensitive. Even the broken bricks they refuse to share. All the while they will be most passionate to preach love for the poor and the frugality of life one should be living. Like that Scribe who was rushing to preach on Charity at a prayer service and did not stop to help the one who had fallen victim to thieves. We can hurry to implement our projects and not notice the man lying at our gate. We love the poor but we cannot tolerate the ‘smell of the sheep’. The mission stations are often only our propaganda tools. We are unaware of their pains and needs. If we visit them at all,  it is to gather data for another project for the poor!

There are some equals in life. Death is one of them. Lazarus died first. Soon the rich man also followed Lazarus to the grave. There is a rehearsal of fortune after death. Lazarus is at the bosom of Abraham and Rich man in the fires of Hades!  How he longs for a drop of water. Just like Lazarus who longed for the scraps or the Catechist who longed for the broken bricks, the rich man now pants for a drop of water. But he who did not share the scraps will not have the drops.

-                                                                                                                                                                                      -  Fr T.V. George sdb