Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost; Octoechos Tone 5; The Holy Martyrs Onisiphorus and Porphyry; Our Venerable Mother Matrona; The Venerable Theoctista of Lesbos.
Galatians 6:11-18; Luke 16:19-31.
Read Luke 16:19-31
Correctly diagnosing the source of a pathology is essential. Previously, in the Parable of the Sower, we learned that we are to cultivate the conditions under which our hearts will hear and receive the word of God – shun evil, deepen our responses to God beyond momentary emotions, do not be overtaken by the cares of life or give our loyalty to its riches and pleasures. Clearly, spiritual deafness cannot be remedied with hearing aids.
Today’s gospel is an even starker warning to tend to the condition of our heart’s receptivity to the word of God. The Rich Man wants his family to “repent”. Abraham says, “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” At issue is more than just being rationally convinced by an extraordinary proof. Jesus says that the most extraordinary proof in history would not penetrate an unrepentant human heart.
The stubborn unbelief of those who crucified Jesus and persisted in it even after his resurrection is simply at the extreme end of all human hardness of heart. We too must tend to our hearts so that we may hear the word of God, repent, and not ignore the poor man at our gate while we feast sumptuously every day. “Keep your heart with all vigilance; for from it flow the springs of life.” (Proverbs 4:23)