It is 25th September 2016. It is the twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The readings are from Amos 6:1, 4-7; 1Timothy 6:11-16; and the Gospel from Luke 16:19-31. The first reading speaks of the indifference and heartless insensitivity of the rich people and the rulers towards the poor. Since they lived in luxury, they did not like to connect to the poor and Amos warns them that they will be eventually punished and exiled for their extravagant life style, luxurious and sinful living. Ignoring the cry of the poor simply means ignoring the feeble voice of God. The responsorial Psalm acclaims, “Praise the Lord, my soul.” (Ps.146:1). In the Second reading, St. Paul encourages Timothy to fight the good fight of the faith. Our life is like a competition to have a winning for God. We just need to run and run, even when there is no applause around, we need encourage ourselves to run until we get the crown of glory. Our witnessing for Christ is the running for Christ. It is all about being faithful to our running with the motivation of winning for Christ. The Gospel points out the attitude of the rich man and his failure to notice the poor man Lazarus. Lazarus means my God is my help. The poor man has a name while there is name for the rich man. We find a deep contrast between their state of life and their attitude towards God’s mercy. Lazarus representing the all the poor of the world, penniless, begging at the doors of the rich and on the other hand the rich man without name living luxuriously, feasting daily, unwilling to share the riches and not ready to ask for God’s mercy. We are those rich who ignore the poor at times. There is a growing indifference, intolerance, blaming, shaming, and ignoring the poor due to our selfishness. We need to look at our own attitudes towards the poor. Are we also nameless because of our response to the cry of the poor? Are we insensitive and indifferent to the silent sobbing of the poor around us? Whenever we fail to share with the poor, we indeed lose the capacity to be human. Let us reach out to the poor as much as we can with love. May the Lord bless you to have a good day.