Woe to the Complacent: Reflections on the Readings for the Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

Amos 6:1a, 4-7
Psalm 146
1 Timothy 6:11-16
Luke 16:19-31

“If we’re satisfied with ourselves and our world as it is, we won’t change it for the better.” Dr. Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul, Cycle C. Complacency leads to inaction. If you are lukewarm in your faith, you are most likely in tune with the world rather than Jesus.

The word “woe” seems pretty popular in biblical phraseology. Prophets, both big and small (e.g., Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Micah, Nahum, etc.) used it, as well as Jesus in Luke’s telling of the Sermon on the Plain and His calling out of the scribes and Pharisees as hypocrites in Matthew’s gospel. Here the prophet Amos is using it in a similar fashion calling out not just the Jewish leadership but the people in general. Basically he is telling them that they have become fat and lazy and will suffer the consequences.

As we noted last week, Amos was concerned about social justice. His description of the decadence into which the people of God have fallen is the result of their complacency and becoming worldly. Similarly, so many people today have left the Church because they became comfortable in the secular world and Church teaching makes them “uncomfortable” or “unwelcome.”

In contrast, the people of Israel were called to “return with tenfold zeal to seek Him” (God) as are we. (Baruch 4:28) Similarly, Jesus demands commitment, not lukewarmness along with repentance. Recall that in the Book of Revelation Jesus tells the Church in Laodicea “so, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3:16) In a time when our faith is challenged daily at home and abroad, complacency and lukewarmness is a losing strategy in spiritual warfare.

The responsorial psalm calls us to be zealous for our faith. “Blessed is he who keeps faith forever, secures justice for the oppressed, ...” Those who follow His commandments will be protected by the LORD. We have to remember that “The LORD shall reign forever ... through all generations.” The message of caring for the needy, the poor, and the orphans is a consistent message and reminds us of the words of the prophet Malachi, “For I, the Lord, do not change.” (Malachi 3:6)

In the second reading St. Paul is encouraging his protégé, Timothy, who has been given the task of bishop of the Church in Ephesus which had become plagued by false teaching. In this letter Paul provides guidance for Timothy as a bishop and for those he would need to support him (priests and deacons). This is considered one of St. Paul’s “Pastoral” letters, pastoral relating to the shepherding of the flock. In the Catechism we learn that “The Good Shepherd ought to be the model and ‘form’ of the bishop’s pastoral office.” (CCC 896) And so Timothy is told to “pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.”

Paul also notes some key basic theology, “God, who gives life to all things.” How often do we forget that everything we have is a gift from God. Without Him we would cease to exist.

Paul also refers to the second coming of Christ who will come at the proper time and the need for perseverance until then. “Compete well for the faith.” In his second letter to Timothy, Paul will expand on the teaching in this letter: ““For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4) Today this could easily refer to the myths and false promises of the secular world which have captured too may souls, resulting in the complacency mentioned by Amos in the first reading.

In closing Paul invokes Jesus Christ and God “the King of kings and Lord of lords, ... To him be honor and eternal power.  Amen.”

In the gospel we get to a number of important issues. First, the rich man was not in hell because he murdered someone or was usurious. He was there because he neglected the needs of the poor man right outside his door. Jesus spoke of this when he warned people about not doing things for the needy which amounted to not doing things for Him. (Matthew 25:31-46) Consider that when we make our general confession at Mass (the Confiteor, or “I Confess”) we speak of sins in our thoughts and our words and also “for what I have done, and what I have failed to do.”

This is also one of the many parables where Jesus specifically relates to someone in Hell. While there are some who don’t believe in Hell or believe it might be empty, the many references Jesus makes to it testify to its reality. “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:13-14) Saint Faustina, among other saints, was given a vision of Hell and wrote in her diary, “I am writing this at the command of God, so that no soul may find an excuse by saying there is no hell, or that nobody has ever been there, and so no one can say what it is like.”

We notice that the poor man is in the bosom of Abraham while the rich man is in torment. Both are in Hades, awaiting the coming of Jesus who will open the gates of heaven or judge some to hell. However, even at this point we see that there is an uncrossable separation between the two, implying that the one in torment is already in Hell. However, we profess in the Apostle’s Creed that Jesus, after His Crucifixion, “descended into Hell.” The Catechism explains: “It is precisely those holy souls, who awaited their savior in Abraham’s bosom, whom Christ the Lord delivered when He descended into hell. Jesus did not descend into Hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the Hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before Him.” (CCC 633)

The Catechism continues, “Henceforth the risen Christ holds ‘the keys of death and Hades,’ so that ‘at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.’” (CCC 635)

These readings all relate to the fact that we are, as St. Paul said, engaged in spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6:11-12). The devil tempts us to be complacent and satisfied with our lives heading down the easy road. But we need to recognize the primacy of God as the source of all that exists and our need to follow His commandments to love Him first and then our neighbors as ourselves.

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:14-15)