26th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C) – Luke 16:19-31
Life is what happens after we make other plans. – John Lennon
What really matters in our lives? What truly is of greatest importance to us? How can we know?
One very good way to find out is to be busy at some project and then to be interrupted. Imagine that your child or grandchild wants to show you something. Or, your spouse wants to speak to you about something. Or, a friend is in need of a listening ear and some words of encouragement. How do we react then?
When we are interrupted, we are caught unprepared. We have not had time to adjust our masks or find the most diplomatic words to say. We are more apt to respond with whatever we are thinking or feeling at the moment. Whatever is in us at that moment, good or bad, comes out when we are interrupted.
But there’s a bit more to it than that. Being interrupted – and allowing ourselves to be interrupted – calls into question the importance of what we are doing at the moment. It challenges our usual priorities, and invites us to see things through the eyes of the interrupting one. It reminds us that there are other perspectives, other lives, other priorities for us to honor, and not merely our own. Interruptions help keep our focus from becoming too narrow, too stuck on ourselves. They remind us that other people matter, too. Interruptions need not be mere aggravations. They can be moments of grace.
God also interrupts. Very often, in the Scriptures, we find God breaking into people’s lives from out of the blue, revealing to them what their lives are really about and calling on them to trust Him. Think of Abraham, already over 70 years old when God first speaks to him. Think of Mary in Nazareth, visited by the Archangel Gabriel. Think of Joseph, once he hears the news. Think of Saul (soon to be Paul), on the road to Damascus. Think of Peter and others, fishermen by their boats, when Jesus calls them. Interruptions. Unexpected events. The true nature of each of these people was revealed in how they responded to these divine interruptions in their lives. Their willingness to place the Lord’s will first in their lives is tested by these interruptions and proved true. Not that it was easy for any of them; it wasn’t. It is never easy to put aside our personal plans and dreams and to allow God to rebuild and expand them. Yet that is what God offers us through His interruptions.
Now we look at the parable that Jesus tells in this Sunday’s Gospel reading. There is a rich man, a phenomenally rich man, who dines sumptuously every day. He has the wealth and the time to do so. An interruption comes his way. A very poor man, Lazarus, is by the rich man’s door. Jesus makes the contrast between the two as sharp as possible. Jesus also makes the interruption as easy as possible for the rich man. Someone of this man’s wealth, faced with such need at his very door, could have easily given Lazarus everything Lazarus needed without missing more than a beat. But the rich man does nothing. He ignores Lazarus. He will not be interrupted, even in the slightest.
Why? It’s not because the rich man lacks time or opportunity or money. He has them all, and in abundance. No. Remember that to allow oneself to be interrupted calls into question the importance of what one is doing at the moment. To go out to meet Lazarus, even if only for a few minutes, would have opened the rich man to look at his own lifestyle and to acknowledge that Lazarus was also a human being who was just as important as himself. Was the rich man being too self-centered? Were there other people like Lazarus whom he could help? What was God saying to the rich man through the interruption of Lazarus? Would the rich man listen? No. The rich man refuses to take that chance, and so he chooses to ignore Lazarus entirely. It’s this refusal to let himself be interrupted, even by God, that leads to the rich man’s disastrous end. If the rich man had let himself be interrupted, his life would have been transformed. He would have seen how narrow his vision had been. God could have led him to a richer, fuller life.
We, too, can easily get caught up in projects and priorities of our own making. These priorities are not necessarily bad or wrong, but they may become too important to us. We can forget that life is greater than any of our projects. Even more importantly, we can forget that each one of us has a role in God’s vision for creation. God’s intent for us is larger, richer, and deeper than anything we could come up with on our own. So God, our of love for us, interrupts us at times. He invites us to step back from our plans, our schedules, and our lives as they have been. He invites us to see that we can be much more than this. He invites us to have faith in His plans for us, and to let Him interrupt us and lead us along a better path.
May we, then, always be ready to be interrupted by God!