Catholic Homily for September 28, 2025
Haunting Blind Spot at the Gate
Do you know some people around us who can not see? They are called “Blind”.
There lived a lady called Margarat for 37 years. She used to walk to bus stop with her golden retriever where a homeless, blind man also sat. She used to see him through all the seasons, may it be freezing cold or scorching summer. His name was Larry.
For the past decades, Margarat perfectly played the art of not seeing, she used to check her phone, adjust her glasses, or talked to her unlistening dog. Larry was a silent man, who was just existed like any streetlight or a mailbox. People used to ignore him so also Margarat.
One Tuesday morning while walking in her usual root, Margarat realized Larry was not there. Just as usual she ignored. But things got quite odd while she noticed the same happened the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. A week later, she saw flower tied to the bus stop pole and a small memorial note: “Larry Henderson, 1962-2025, Veteren, Father, A Friend to all who knew him“. Standing, she continued reading his life history, his service in Afghanistan, his struggle with PTSD, his daughter who had been searching for him long years.
Now Margaret realized that she had spent 37 years walking past someone’s who fought for her country, someone’s father who has been lost, someone Christ who called her to love. That moment her blindness spotted some light. She became a volunteer whose eyes were wide open to help the needy as her highest priority.
Do you understand who is called blind? Is it only who can not see? or one who does not realize too?
Today’s gospel presents to us the gravity of sin of willful blindness. A rich man, traditionally called Dives, lives in luxury with all the comforts of life, while a person called Lazarus lies at the gate with sores, longing to fill his stomach from the rich man’s table.
The rich man day was adventurous in getting the most comforts possible but Lazarus has to fight with all the situations of his life like, health, hunger, happiness…
The most chilling detail here is not the wealth gap, but that the rich man knows the name of Lazarus. Because while both are dead, the rich man calls Abraham and asks Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool his tongue.
So, this is not a case of ignorance only but a delibrate blindness. The rich man saw Lazarus daily, he knew him, also he recognize his face, yet in life Lazarus was invisible. This rich man’s sin was not earning wealth, but failing to see the needy in his luxury.
This indifferent attitude is likely to create a great wall between two people. That wall mirrors the chasm in the gospel we hear. Chasm is the wall the rich man created between him and Lazarus.
It is alarming to hear, that right? are most of us not like this rich man? Creating differences, walls, and blindness? not only that.
In the first reading we hear from prophet Amos who thunders against these type of people. He speaks against those who lie on ivory, stretch themselves and eat lambs from the flock. Those rich people had least concern about the suffering flocks, their foremost concern was to fill themselves with comforts and cravings.
Prophet Amos is not condemning wealth itself but cautions about the indifference breeds. The rich people in Samaria did not harm any poor but lived as if the poor people do not exist. There is the problem. Their sin was not seeing, not caring, not being ‘grieved’ by other’s suffering.
Why at all this much importance to poor in the Bible? it is because we read in Psalm 68:5 (Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation) God repeated identifies himself with the poor and marginalized. So Blindness toward the poor is equal to blindness towards God himself.
In the book of Sirach also warns us in Sirach 34:25 (The bread of the needy is the life of the poor; whoever deprives them of it is a murderer). Therefore being indifferent or not seeing is not being neutral but it is a form of violence the Bible says.
We may think this idea is age old and we can not follow it today, I can hear you mind voice. But it is not impossible. We know about our beloved Saint Teresa of Calcutta, who said, “The poor are not there for us to give them something, but they are there so we can receive (Grace) from them.” Thus she recognized that Lazarus in the Gospel are not problem to solve but a teacher to embrace, a sacrament of Christ’s presence. She just lived some decedes ago, she was able to live it, why can’t we? so it is possible.
Saint John Chrysostom in his preaching, challenged his wealthy congregation directly, saying, Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs.” He understood that indifference to poverty isn’t passive—it’s an active robbery.
Living the Gospel in Daily Life
In our daily lives, we face with countless oppurtunities to remain blind to the people in need. Today our needs are not only money. It is time, understanding, kindness, supports and so on. Maybe our elderly neighbor whose family never visits while we are too busy to check on them. Maybe our coworker who lost his loved one and depressed while we only focus on our own deadlines. Sometimes, ignored kid, sickly old man at the roadside, the list can go on. These occasions give us choices whether we want to be the rich man or good samaritan.
All the more, today the social media creates a new forms of blindness. We scroll past news of tragedies, wars, and suffering with the same emotional detachment we might show to weather reports. The refugees, the homeless, the elderly in nursing homes—they become statistics rather than faces.
The most dangerous part is that this blindness feels comfortable, even virtuous. We convince ourselves we’re too busy doing important things to notice. We rationalize that “someone else” will help. We develop sophisticated theologies about why poverty exists while remaining untouched by actual poor people.
Challenge for the day
Jesus’ parable today is not about economic inequality, its all about spiritual blindness means not seeing God in the needy. God gave us everything free, how can we repay him? only through these poor and needy. There are hearts longing to hold your hand, are we ready to grab the oppurtunities or just wear the sunglasses of indifference and live just as if only we exist in the world.
The challenge isn’t to give away everything we own but to develop eyes that see the need of others. When we truly see others, compassionate action follows naturally. When we remain blind, even our charity can become another form of self-serving blindness.
Jesus warns us clearly that the chasms we create through indifference in this life become eternal chasms in the next. Let us not create walls, let us create ways. Let us not create boundaries, let us create bridges.
Let our Prayer for today be,
Lord Jesus, open our eyes to see You in every Lazarus at our gate. Forgive our comfortable blindness and give us hearts that break open at the sight of suffering. Help us bridge the chasms our indifference has created, and teach us to recognize You especially in those we’ve learned to ignore. Amen.
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