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