Who sees me?

Homily

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time C2

25 September 2022

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

AMDG

Who sees me?

I bet many of you here today are lonely.  If you're not, you might soon be.  It's a normal, common human feeling.  It's nothing to be ashamed of.

The feeling of loneliness is borne of rejection.  I have been forgotten, passed over, betrayed and let down.  I've done the same to others.  So the feeling of loneliness, and the resulting spiritual questions, come often and throughout the whole of life.  Am I alone?  Can anyone see me?  Does anyone care?  Can anyone help?

The key as we see in today's Gospel is to try to relate the feeling of loneliness to God. The Good News is that God sees, and cares, and accompanies us throughout the whole of life, as only He can, if only we let Him.  

That's why a prayer life, an intimate one of shared experience and pain, is critical to entering into life.  There are no shortcuts to relating our experience with God.  You have to put the time in, with vulnerability, if your trust in His care for you can grow.  

As always in the Gospel, my soul is at stake.  We see how easily the rich man, who remains nameless, loses his soul by trying to make a name for himself.  Instead of relating his experience to God, he indulges in self-care, which can never be as life-giving as begging someone to care for you.  In indulging in self-care, an insulated character results, and a soul is lost.

Instead, Lazarus prays.  Lazarus begs.  Lazarus relates.  If only my prayer life was like his.  Is anyone there?  Does anyone care?  Will anyone help me?  In the end that prayer is answered, through much perseverance no doubt, for the Lord hears the cry of the poor.

Why do I have a constant need to be seen, known, chosen and desired?  It's because I'm a relational being.  To be alive is to be in relationship, to be dead is to be alone.  The loneliness endemic to the human experience is a pining for life born of relationship.  It's ultimately a pining for God Himself, for He alone can fulfill what I am made for.  It's nobody's else's job, nor could it be, nor does it help to try to take care of myself, as tempting as that may be.

It's a spiritual question for the whole of life.  God, are you there?  Do you see me?

Who sees me?