Twenty sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time C. September 26, 2004. Our Lady of Grace 6PM. Amos 8: 4-7. 1 Timothy 2: 1-8. Luke 16: 19-31.

Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world. A few years ago a new luxury hotel was being built outside of the capital city of Haiti. The owners of the hotel soon discovered that they had a major problem to solve. There was a slum teeming with poor people close enough to the Hotel that guests could see it from the hotel windows. The hotel owners came up with a simple solution. They decided to build a wall between the slum and the hotel so that the poor could no longer be seen. In this way, the hotel guests would be saved from the discomfort of having to look at the struggles of the poor

Today’s gospel assures us that protecting our eyes from seeing the poor is not a solution acceptable to God. The rich man in the gospel seems to have done nothing more than refuse to notice the poor man lying outside his door. On the Day of Judgment the poor man ended up at Abraham’s side in heaven. The rich man ended up being tormented by the fires of hell. Jesus is making a very graphic and powerful point in this story. He doesn’t say that being rich is a problem. Blindness, not wealth, is the problem. Jesus teaches us that not noticing the poor is the pathway to hell. Wealth is wrong when it makes us blind to the needs of the people around us and blind to the struggle of the poor.

As Catholic we are very concerned about the plight of the unborn. Catholics have been demonized and cursed by some for declaring that the protection of the unborn child and the well being of the mother are both important. Abortion is evil because abortion takes the life of a child. All human life is sacred to God. We have not always been as sensitive to other issues involving the poor. For example, between 15 and 20 million people die of starvation or hunger related illness around the world each year. About 12 million of these are children who die before the reach the age of 5. Is failure to act to protect a five year old any less evil than failing to act to protect the unborn? There are about 40 million abandoned children living on the streets in Latin America. There are hundreds of thousands of children involved in prostitution around the world and in our country.

In the United States 35.8 million people lived below the poverty line in 2003, 12.5% of the citizens of our land according to the US Census Bureau. 17.9% of American children under age 18 live in poverty.

Several years ago I invited Archbishop Flynn to talk to the parish community I was serving at our annual Respect Life Mass. As I remember it, he began his homily by saying – I know that many of you want me to talk about the evil of abortion. Abortion is very evil. Everyone here knows that. Nevertheless, today I have decided to talk about another subject. I would like to talk about the evil of capital punishment, the taking of a human life as punishment for a crime. All human life is sacred to God. Capital punishment is an offense against the sacredness of every human life in God’s eyes. – The Archbishop went on to say – I did not learn this in a book. I learned about the sacredness of all human life in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. Jesus taught me in prayer that all human life is sacred. There are not exceptions.

What will cure our blindness to the plight of millions of struggling human beings in our land and around the world? What will open our eyes to the awesome reality of the Day of Judgment when God will judge each of us against the background of our response to those in need and to the poor? An important way to overcome our blindness is regular silent prayer in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. In the Eucharist we receive the mind of Christ and the heart of Christ, the eyes of Christ and the ears of Christ. In the Eucharist we receive the grace and the power to respond to those around us as Jesus did.

Sunday Mass is the primary way that we are a Eucharistic people. Gathered together as the Church we are nourished on the real presence of Jesus and become his living body, here and now. The Eucharist unites us with Christ in so powerful a way that we begin to see, love and respond as the Body of Christ, present in this community, to serve those in need. The Eucharist is a community prayer. That is its purpose and its strength. The Eucharist brings us together as a community, a living body of believers, to hear the Lord’s word and to be transformed by being nourished on his Body and Blood. During our Sunday Eucharist we pray and sing together, not just as individuals. We are called to salvation and to transform the world as a community of believers. The Mass deepens our vocation as the Church and empowers us to live that vocation together in the world.

Even though it is the very center of our faith, the Mass is not long enough for us to have sufficient time to digest and be nourished on what has happened to us during the liturgy we have shared together. Prayerful and active participation in the Mass makes us hungry for times of silence when we can fully understand what has happened to us in the sacrifice we have shared and the communion we have received. Eucharistic Adoration is a very fitting extension of the Mass into the very depth of our souls.

Perhaps, the main reason that we can not see the meaning of our own lives and the plight of the people around us is the result of not taking time to be silent in the presence of the Lord. The Lord desires to teach us everything we need to know and see. All we have to do is to take the time to be quiet and listen. In our increasingly noisy world, silent prayer is the key to a successful and peaceful life. In our increasingly busy world, silent prayer is the key to a peaceful and fulfilling life.

Today I invite you to do something very simple, yet very profound. I ask you to commit yourself to one hour a week of silent prayer in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament in our Adoration Chapel. I assure you that if you give the Lord an hour of silent time a week he will give you back your life in a new and deeper way. Give the Lord the time and the Lord will teach you to pray. Give the Lord the time and the Lord will lead you into the depths of your own heart, and into the heart of Christ. There are few things more important in this age of business and confusion than an hour a week in silent prayer.

The pressure on teens is immense and growing. Every teen needs a quiet place in his or her heart to be at peace, experience the friendship of Jesus, and learn to see self and the world with the eyes of Christ. In a very special way I invite teens and groups of teens to sign up for this weekly hour of divine peace in Eucharistic Adoration. Please give yourself, your families and the world the gift of an hour a week of Adoration and prayer. I invite you in Jesus Name.