INTRODUCTION

"The oldest style of story is the myth. Pure and simple, it's the fabrication about the origins of our race and our world, though not always as elaborated as we find it in the book of Genesis. Alongside it arose Aesop's fables. Aesop, according to the historian Herodotus, was a slave who lived in the mid-sixth century before Christ, about the same time as one of the Genesis stories was circulating. Grimm's fairy tales and the tales of Hans Christian Andersen, the nineteenth-century Danish storyteller, have almost the same appeal - the color, aroma, taste - as the short story and novel. The parables of Jesus belong to this great classic literature, and excel it."

Joseph Fichtner, OSC
Many Things in Parables
Reflections for Life

"The importance of these gems of Jesus is illustrated by their prominence in His overall ministry. He communicated one-third of His sayings in story form. This suggests how impossible it is to get a true grasp of His message apart from the parables. Much of His teachings on the kingdom, in act, was given in this way. And since His kingdom program underlies the New Testament, the full impact of the gospel is blunted without them. We, therefore, come to the heart of the Lord's ministry when we listen again to His captivating parables on the kingdom."

Stanley Ellisen
PARABLES in the EYE of the STORM

Parables point to the kingdom. They are, indeed, the "arrows of God." They pierce us and make us painfully aware of our need to change the way we relate to ourselves, others, and God. We look and we see. This is how we must live in God's kingdom. We are called, and know ourselves called.

Megan McKenna
Parables
The Arrows of God

The RICH MAN and LAZARUS

There was a rich man, dressed in purple and fine linen, who feasted sumptuously every day. But there was also a poor man, whose name was Lazarus, and who lay ill at the rich man's gate, covered with sores. Lazarus longed to satisfy his hunger with whatever fell from the rich man's table. Not only that, but even the street dogs came to lick his running sores.

Pope Benedict XVI

JESUS of NAZARETH

The Lord wants to lead us from foolish cleverness toward true wisdom; he wants to teach us to discern the real good. And so we have good grounds, even though it is not in the text, to say that, from the perspective of the Psalms, the rich glutton was already an empty-hearted man in this world, and that his carousing was only an attempt to smother this interior emptiness of his.

The parable emphasizes the seriousness of the present. What really matters is what we do right now. The story calls us to a real sense of responsibility for the poor and the oppressed. And all this in reference to God's judgment and criterion.

One is not guilty only when one commits evil, but also when one does not act. The rich man's sin consists in the fact that he has not shown any concern, that he has been blind to the plight of the poor.

Herman Hendrickx
The PARABLES of JESUS
Studies in the Synoptic Gospels

We are all rich in something. Some are intellectually rich: they are educated and cultured, they have good taste and a natural or an acquired refinement. The danger for those people is to look down on the Lazaruses sitting at their gate, who do not appreciate classical music, great books, bridge, crossword puzzles, art exhibitions, refined cuisine. When we are rich by our minds, it is quite easy never to understand the intellectual hunger of those who can feed themselves only with insipid television programs or cheap novels. Others are rich in affections: they have good home and lots of friends surrounding them with love. Do these understand the desperate solitude of the Lazaruses on their doorstep, who suffer from a stale marriage, an unchosen celibacy, a stuffy education? Still others are rich in health, sound judgment, psychological equilibrium, professional success.

Each one of us has a Lazarus at his door, someone who does not have our wealth, whatever it might be, and who would very much want us to share it with him. It is up to us to invite him in and have sit at our table.

Nil Guillemette, SJ
PARABLES for TODAY
Exegis-Reflections

Lk 16

It is indifference that makes for the chasm between the rich and poor, an invisible wall demarcating the socio-economic structures of society. Such a chasm appears to be transferable in the afterlife but with complete reversal of conditions and fortunes: Lazarus finds himself up there, and the rich man down below.Talking of structural karma! Abraham said to the rich man: "... Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing ..."

A terrifying image indeed if that chasm of indifference is not addressed while bridging possibilities still exist in time, in the here and now.

Fr. Venerando Yator, SVD
THE WORD
in other words
Bible Diary 2007

Jesus' first point is that the rich man died and went to hades, and that the poor man died and went to Abraham's bosom. Though riches or poverty had nothing to do with where they went, Jesus told this story to show that humanistic expectations are often false. The highly touted prize of riches is no guarantee of heaven, and the condition of poverty is no guarantee of hades or of God's disfavor toward a person.

Stanley Ellison
PARABLES in the EYE of the STORM

The TREASURE and the PEARL

Matthew 13: 44-46

The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. Having discovered it, a man hides it again; then, full of joy he goes and sells everything he owns, and then he buys that field.

The Kingdom of heaven is also like a dealer in search of pearls. Having found a particularly valuable one, he went, sold everything he had, and then bought it.

To discover Jesus is to discover a treasure. This is what two categories of people tell us, the converts and the saints. The converts, because their painful quest for the Absolute, their lengthy wanderings through the night of despairing nonsense or of sin so terribly monotonous have emerged into an unexpected dawn - unexpected and all the more astounding for that very reason. The saints, because their unqualified option in favor of God enables them to progress day by day in an ocean of love which elates them and at the same time fills them with a sweet torment beside which human joys appear as laughable trinkets.

Nil Guillemette, SJ
PARABLES for TODAY

The treasure is the relationship with God revealed and expressed in community of believers, between God and God's people, the presence of Jesus in the community. We really must do what we say:"may your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it already is in heaven." God's will - "I have come that they may have life, life in all its fullness" (John 10:10).

Megan McKenna
PARABLES
The Arrow of God

THE LAST JUDGMENT

Matthew 25: 31-46

When the Son of man will come in his glory with all his angels, he will take his seat on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate men from one another, just as the shepherd sorts out the sheep from the goats. he will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those he will have placed on his right: "Come, you whom my Father has blessed. Inherit the Kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For indeed I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to me."

Fr. John O'Mahony

And we extend the hand of compassion and love to the sick and to all who suffer in any way, not in the hope of any reward, but because this is where we meet Christ. It is here that we serve him. That should be reward enough for us.

Fr. H\John O'Mahony, SVD
THE WORD 2008

In other words

Pagkukulang is doing nothing with the talents entrusted by the king who went on a journey. It is the charge Jesus lays against those who, unlike the Samaritan, avoided the man fallen among robbers. It is solidarity withheld from the poor man at the gates of our lavish celebrations and lifestyles. None of us can ever claim full acquittal from its accusation at the end for Jesus will take personally every failing in love for our neighbor, his brother.

Put differently, if Jesus is Everyman who is in need, then He is the neighbor who is our savior or our judge. In ways never anticipated, our salvation or condemnation is in our neighbor's hands.

Diony Miranda, SVD
THE WORD
in other words
Bible Diary 2008

Whatsoever You Do ...

You face God and accounts to Him the good you were able to do and the good you failed to do. We cannot blame others for the acts we committed and omitted.

Socrates Villegas
JESUS IN MY HEART
Homilies and Prayers at the EDSA Shrine

MT 25

Jesus doesn't hold it against nonbelievers and non-Christians if through no fault of their own they lack explicit faith in him. They're judged on the basis of the light they have received in this life and on their works of mercy and justice. Their light may be no more illuminating than their conscience, energized by good will. Jesus asks basically as much of them as of anyone, namely good works performed for the benefit of the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick, prisoners - in a word, for the poor and needy. The traditional corporal and spiritual works of mercy rate high in his judgment.

They are the decisive factor, pro and con, in the final judgment of humankind, bearing more heavily on what is left undone. The sins he takes principally into account are the sins of omission - our failure to serve the poor in the world who represent him, and he in turn decides against all who neglect them (cf. Dt 15:9)

Joseph Fichtner, OSC
Many Things in Parables
Reflections for Life

THE LAST JUDGMENT

"The criteria of the Last Judgment are interesting. Indirectly they tell us what "sort" of God is the God whose name Jesus pronounces Judgment.

Now we note with surprise that God is pretty indifferent concerning whatever men will have done to him personally. He condemns no one for what we could call crimes of lese majesty: blasphemies, profanations, neglect of religious duties, ignorance of his prerogatives, acts of superstition, magic, idolatry, etc. On the other hand, he shows himself supremely interested in whatever men will have done to the weakest of them, those he calls his brothers."

Nil Guillemette, SJ
PARABLES for TODAY
Exegis-Reflections

Fr. Domie Guzman

Divine Charity is to help and serve with the vision of the other not just as a needy person. Divine Charity is to help and serve the other whom we see as God-among-us.

Fr. Domie Guzman, SSP
New Every Morning
New Everyday

SHEPHERD-KING

Jesus will ask us if we showed care and concern for the hungry, the thirsty and the naked. They are the least of our brothers and sisters who have been deprived of the basic needs of food, drink, and clothing, the poorest of the poor in our midst.

Most Rev. Mylo Hubert Vergara, DD, MA, STD
A SHEPHERD'S VOICE

Fr. Nil Guillemette

Jesus enlists all his followers in his war against suffering. He identifies with the sufferer and expects our love for him to react accordingly.

Fr. Nil Guillemette
KINDLINGS

Fr. Yoyo Rebucias

Indeed, it is too difficult to welcome, clothe, feed, visit, give a drink to a person when he/she doesn't pass your taste or standard. But for the sake of Christ, you've got to do it. People tend to be ungrateful but this should not discourage a Christian from showing his/her concern and love. This is the beauty of Christianity. The face of Christ in others moves us to serve the less fortunate, the unlovable, and those undeserving of our help. The face of Christ inspires us even to trust those who are not trustworthy. Only in this manner that we never get tired of doing good to the other.

Fr. Yoyo Rebucias, SVD
THE WORD 2007

SURPRISES

The first will be that Jesus will not gave particular attention to what we would consider shining moments in human history. Rather, the focus will be on what seems to be ordinary deeds for most of us: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, attending to the sick, visiting the inmate, welcoming strangers.

Fr. Bobby Titco
Sabbath 2008

Fr. Joel Jason

Jesus is now inviting us to a higher level of obedience. He wants that the thing that we follow and do be deeply rooted in love.

Fr. Joel Jason
Sabbath 2009
Scripture Meditation for Daily Life

Fr. Emmanuel Menguito

There are a million of ways by which you and I could serve the least of our brothers and sisters as the gospel for today demands. We just have to open our eyes and ears to see and hear the needs of those who are less fortunate! The traditional seven coporal works of mercyare actions we must do in order for us to be called blessed by the Father.

Fr. Emmanuel Menguito, SVD
THE WORD
in other words
2009 Bible Diary