Christ and the "Us vs. Them" Mentality

Gospel Reflection for September 28, 2025 - Luke 16:19-31

There was a certain rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen; and feasted sumptuously every day.

And there was a certain beggar, named Lazarus, who lay at his gate, full of sores,

Desiring to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table, and no one did give him; moreover the dogs came, and licked his sores.

And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom. And the rich man also died: and he was buried in hell.

And lifting up his eyes when he was in torments, he saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom:

And he cried, and said: Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, to cool my tongue: for I am tormented in this flame.

And Abraham said to him: Son, remember that thou didst receive good things in thy lifetime, and likewise Lazareth evil things, but now he is comforted; and thou art tormented.

And besides all this, between us and you, there is fixed a great chaos: so that they who would pass from hence to you, cannot, nor from thence come hither.

And he said: Then, father, I beseech thee, that thou wouldst send him to my father’s house, for I have five brethren,

That he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torments.

And Abraham said to him: They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.

But he said: No, father Abraham: but if one went to them from the dead, they will do penance.

And he said to him: If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe, if one rise again from the dead. (Luke 16:19-31 DRA)

A popular colloquialism in modern English is the phrase “us vs. them.” It originates from social psychology and anthropology, developing from the terminology of “in-group” and “out-group” first used by William Sumner in 1906. It became increasingly popular throughout the 20^th century, employed in labor disputes, in civil rights and Vietnam protests, and now in the culture wars and even in business management. Its most consistent use is to contrast “togetherness” or unity, the view that “we’re all in this together despite our differences,” with a view which pits one group against another, usually a group you belong to versus a group that is in some way different than your group, “the other” as it’s sometimes called.

This phrase has some legitimate applications and like most things humans do it has been used both rightly and wrongly over time. But some today also apply it to religion, most of all to Catholicism which is quite accurately considered to be the most “exclusive” religion in the world. You are either a member of the Church or you are not – and if you are not, Hell is a real possibility for you unless you convert. Other religions do share some variation of this view, which is why some see religion in general as “divisive” and “tribalistic,” but Catholicism can be considered its chief representative.

In the Gospel reading for today, Jesus shows us precisely why the Church is so “us vs. them.” There are perhaps no more “divisive” words spoken in all of Scripture, by the very “New Testament God” (through the voice of Abraham) who is supposed to be more easy-going and all-inclusive than the so-called “Old Testament God”: “between us and you, there is fixed a great chaos: so that they who would pass from hence to you, cannot, nor from thence come hither.”

How can this be squared with the message of “todos, todos, todos” – “everyone, everyone, everyone” – we hear so often today from every level of the Church? Ever since Vatican II, the general attitude toward non-Catholics, and even toward heretical Catholics, has often been to “find common ground,” i.e. to focus on ways we agree instead of on ways we differ, so that the errors and even grave evils of modernism, LGBT ideology, Protestantism, Islam, New Age paganism, Communism or atheism, are often ignored while evangelization of these groups is labeled “proselytism.” Why try to convert them when we basically already agree anyways? That’s just having an “us vs. them” mentality!

As Our Lord shows in His parable today, there can be no unity between good and evil, only an infinite chasm. This is why elsewhere He said, “Do not think that I came to send peace upon earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword”, (Mt 10:34) and this is why He addressed this parable to the Pharisees, the same message that was delivered centuries before to the Israelites by the prophet Amos in the first reading: if you do not become an athleta Christi, competing well for the Faith as St. Paul exhorted in the Epistle, you will never be worthy of the gift of eternal life. The Pharisees possessed the Law and the prophets and the Wisdom Books of the Old Testament, yet even when they learned that Christ was risen from the dead, they still refused to believe and so, as Christ told them, “you shall die in your sins.” (Jn 8:24)

But on the other hand, Our Lord’s description of the afterlife can also be taken too far to the other extreme. Ultimately, as St. Paul teaches, “our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places.” (Eph 6:12) In this way, the “us vs. them” phrase can be sanctified: we are not competing against other humans but against the world, the flesh and the devil, against sin which threatens us just as much as it enslaves others. So, while we cannot have true unity with sinners, we can and must love them, even our enemies, working for their conversion and liberation from sin so that they may be spared the definitive exile experienced by the rich man in Christ’s parable, the permanent exile from communion with the Church and from beatitude with God.

This must be the goal of our lives as Christians, especially in how we represent the Faith to others: we must always seek to lead them closer to Christ, to help free them from their bondage to sin and show them the joy of the saints. While many wicked men in this life, like the rich man, will receive good things of the world, only saints like Lazarus, despite all his earthly affliction and misery, can receive true and lasting goodness - God, who is Goodness-itself – and be truly fulfilled.

This coming week is filled with great saints’ feast days - Sts. Michael, Gabriel and Raphael on Monday, St. Jerome on Tuesday, St. Therese on Wednesday, the guardian angels on Thursday and St. Francis of Assisi on Saturday. May we remember their heroic witness to Christ and pray for their intercession! Ora pro nobis!

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