“There was a rich
man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every
day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, full of sores, who desired
to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table; moreover, the dogs came and
licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s
bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being in torment,
he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he
called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus to dip the
end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this
flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you in your lifetime received
your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is
comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and
you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here
to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said,
‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house, for I have five
brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of
torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear
them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the
dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the
prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the
dead.’”[1]
Inevitably, we think of ourselves in
the best light. We think of ourselves as
being humble when, in all actuality, we are full of pride. As a result, we are no different than the
Pharisees. It is probably for this
reason that Jesus relates this story. He
does it for the sake of the Pharisees, that they might repent. Scripture states that the Pharisees The
Pharisees were lovers of money.[2] However, if someone were to confront a
Pharisee and asked him if he loved money, he would undoubtedly say, “Oh, no, I
love only God;” and he would have been stating what he believed to be
true. The Pharisees believed they were
obeying the Law to the “t.” We need to
put ourselves in the shoes of the Pharisee, and say, “I am the Pharisee.” If we do not do so—if we believe otherwise--then
this passage is of no benefit to us; it is only for that person or those type
of people. Jesus’ words need to become
an arrow, hopefully, piercing our hearts and consciences, making us see: “You are those who justify yourselves before
men, but God knows your hearts.”[3]
In many ways, the Pharisees were
much better than us. The Pharisees
prayed often, went to the temple, offered sacrifices, paid tithes, etc. They read and studied Moses and the
prophets. They could quote Scripture
better than a Baptist. They believed
that they were loving and serving God.
Nonetheless, our Lord rebukes them, accusing them of the fact that they
did not hear Moses and the prophets: “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”[4] Like the Pharisees, our hearing needs to be healed.
How numerous the times, for us, that the
word of God is [not] living and
active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and
spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the
heart.[5] How numerous the times that the word of God falls
upon calloused hearts, going in one ear and out the
other. How numerous the times we hear,
“That is what the Catholic Church believes, but I don’t believe that
way”—attempting to make ourselves a greater authority than the Church, of which
Jesus is the Head. Hence, we have to
consider our Lord’s words: What is
exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.[6] When
we say that, or think it, we are exalting ourselves. We exemplify what occurred in Adam at the
time of the Fall: We want to be like God, making the determination of what is
right and what is wrong, thinking we are more wise than God.
“Why was this rich man condemned? Was it on account of his riches? Surely not. Many among the saints possessed in abundance
the riches of this earth. Many of them
reached the highest honors and dignities with their accompanying wealth… Riches, if employed, may bring us to
salvation, and may contribute to an increase of glory. Out of ‘the
mammon of iniquity,’ we may raise up powerful advocates before the throne
of grace by hiding our alms in the bosom of the poor, who, after death, may
receive us into everlasting tabernacles; and this, in many instances, is the
merciful design God has in view in bestowing them. Was he a heartless oppressor, a wholesale
exterminator, who mercilessly ground down the countenances of the poor, against
whom the cry of distress, the wail of the widow and the orphan, ascended before
the throne of a just God? Was he guilty
of the unnatural crime of creating a widespread misery, which he afterwards
refused to alleviate—a thing by no means uncommon? Our Redeemer charges him with no such crime. Nor do we find him charged with being a rock
of scandal, a stumbling block of offence, by his public immoralities, spreading
the odor and infection of spiritual death everywhere around him. Neither have we any reason for doubting the
sincerity of his faith, for Abraham addresses him as his ‘son’ (v. 25), and the
reference which Abraham makes to ‘Moses
and the Prophets’ (v. 29) would
lead us to suppose that the unhappy man offered no public resistance to the
teaching or the ordinances of the ruling authorities of the Jewish Church, who
sat in the chair of Moses. Why then was
he ‘buried in hell?’ Our Redeemer, in the foregoing passage,
conveys that it was for a mere sin of omission, for his inhumanity, for his
neglect to succor the miseries of the poor.”[7] Would one time have been sufficient enough
for the rich man to have helped Lazarus?
What about 10? or 100? Perhaps,
he thought that Lazarus needed to get a job, to hire himself out. It does not matter about the number; it is
about living a life of helping those in need.
It is about having the heart of God which we are given in Baptism when
we are made children of God, receiving his divinity (heart) within us. It is for this reason that we need to pray
that he work in us to will and to do: for
it is God who works in you, both to will and to accomplish, according to his
good will.[8] St. Paul tells us, “…To will is present with me; but, to accomplish that which is good, I
find not.”[9] We
must not place confidence in ourselves, in what we are doing, but we must be
looking to God. We must do the works;
however, we cannot place our confidence in the works that we do. We must become the unprofitable servant. “Who
among you would say to your servant who has just come in from plowing or
tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here immediately and take your place at
table’? Would he not rather say to him,
‘Prepare something for me to eat. Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat
and drink. You may eat and drink when I
am finished’? Is he grateful to that
servant because he did what was commanded? So should it be with you. When you have done all you have been
commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged
to do.’”[10
This ties in perfectly with what Jesus
does in the Temple, in John 2: The Passover
of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling
oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers at their business. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all,
with the sheep and oxen, out of the temple; and he poured out the coins of the
money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take
these things away; you shall not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written,
“Zeal for thy house will consume me.”[11] St. Augustine opines, “Those who sell in the
Church are those who seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ.”[12] We seek our own, for example, when we go to
Mass just to fill an obligation. We seek
our own when our main desire is to no go to hell.
The fathers of the Church were quick to
note that not only were the men chased from the Temple but also the sheep and
oxen. The venerable Bede goes on to
explain: “The sheep are works of purity and piety, and they sell the sheep who
do works of piety to gain the praise of men. They exchange money in the temple, who, in the
Church, openly devote themselves to secular business. And besides those who seek for money or praise
or honor from Holy Orders, those too make the Lord’s house a house of merchandise, who do not employ the rank or spiritual grace which they have
received in the Church at the Lord’s hands with singleness of mind but with an
eye to human recompense.”[13] In other words, the things we do must be as
an extension of Christ and his love, not to earn something for ourselves,
either from God or man. In the book on
Lenten Grace, we read, “Completing the activities of religious practice can … hide
a heart that does not belong entirely to God.”[14] St. Augustine teaches us: “Everyone, by his
sins, twists for himself a cord, in that he goes on adding sin to sin. So, then, when men suffer for their
iniquities, let them be sure that it is the Lord making a scourge of small
cords, and admonishing them to change their lives--which if they fail to do,
they will hear at the last, Bind. him
hand and foot.”[15] We need Jesus to make a cord of our sins and
scourge our pride, chasing it out of the “temple.” It is as a result of the pride within us—whether
we see that pride or not—that makes us the “rich man.” Whatever adversities may confront us, let us
see them as scourges, for our good, and thank God for giving his loving
attention to us, to make us more in the image of his Son.
“If I had been there that day when you,
Jesus, came in and overturned all of our tables, doing what we thought was a
good thing, I would have been angry and confused. If you come into my life today and force me to
look at issues that I have safely swept under the carpet, I will be angry and
confused. But I need you to do that,
Jesus. So, come gently but firmly, and show me where you would like me to
change and grow into a deeper relationship with you.”[16]
Many people place confidence in the fact
that they have chosen to believe in Christ; however, let’s take St. Augustine’s
words to heart: “‘Cursed is the man that trusts in man (Jer 17:5)’ is the testimony
of holy writ; and, consequently, this curse attaches also to the man who trusts
in himself.”[17] The prophet, Jeremiah, warns us, “The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately corrupt; who can understand it?”[18] Also, we are told in
Proverbs, “He who
trusts in his own
mind is a fool.”[19] We must be looking
towards the hope of the transformation God will perform in us: Christ-likeness.
Otherwise, we will be as the Pharisees and
the rich man.
Right after Jeremiah announces, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and
makes flesh his arm,” he adds these words, “whose heart turns away from the Lord.”[20] Although the man still
believes in God, his heart has turned away.
This is what our Lord was telling the Pharisees; this is what our Lord
is telling us. We are seekers of comfort
and pleasure, which equates to a love of money.
When our minds are upon comfort, pleasure, status, etc., our minds have
turned away from God. We can deny it;
however, denying it will not help us. It
is only by confessing it that we might receive help. Only God can change us. The
truth will set you free.[21] It is abiding in his word that we come to see
pride within ourselves. It is abiding in
his word that we come to the conclusion that we cannot destroy pride, that we
must confess it and go to the One who has the power to destroy it.
“The ‘commandment’ of love is only
possible because it is more than a requirement. Love can be ‘commanded’ because it has first
been given. This principle is the
starting-point for understanding the great parables of Jesus. The rich man … begs from his place of torment
that his brothers be informed about what happens to those who simply ignore the
poor man in need. Jesus takes up this
cry for help as a warning to help us return to the right path.”[22] Because we are children of human parents, we
act human. Because we are born of God in
Baptism, we are children of God; and, therefore, we need to act godly,
righteous. In order to accomplish this
Christ gives us the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist. In the Eucharist, we consume Christ—body,
blood, soul, and divinity—becoming more and more the likeness of what we eat.
In conclusion, let us not become
devastated by the fact that we are like the rich man and the Pharisees. Let us allow this truth to turn us to Christ
in repentance, accepting his forgiveness, and allow him to transform us into
his likeness, by way of his Church and the Sacraments. Let us allow our Lord to make a scourge of our sins and chase out everything that is not like him.
[1]
Catholic Biblical Association (Great Britain), The Holy Bible:
Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, (New York: National
Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, 1994), Lk 16:19–31.
[3] Ibid.,
Lk 16:15.
[4] Ibid.,
Lk 16:31.
[5] Ibid.,
Heb 4:12.
[6] Ibid.,
Lk 16:15.
[7] John
MacEvilly, An Exposition of
the Gospel of St. Luke, (Dublin: Gill & Son, 1887), 184.
[8] The Holy Bible,
Translated from the Latin Vulgate, (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible
Software, 2009), Php 2:13.
[9] Ibid.,
Ro 7:18.
[10] New American Bible,
Revised Edition., (Washington, DC: The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops,
2011), Lk 17:7–10.
[11]
Catholic Biblical Association (Great Britain), The Holy Bible:
Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, (New York: National
Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, 1994), Jn 2:13–17.
[12]
Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea:
Commentary on the Four Gospels, Collected out of the Works of the Fathers: St.
John, ed. John Henry Newman, (Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1845),
4:95.
[13] Ibid.
[14]
Daughters of Saint Paul, Lenten Grace: Daily
Gospel Reflections, (Boston, MA: Pauline Books & Media,
2008), 53.
[15]
Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea:
Commentary on the Four Gospels, Collected out of the Works of the Fathers: St.
John, ed. John Henry Newman, (Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1845),
4:96.
[16]
Daughters of Saint Paul, Lenten Grace: Daily
Gospel Reflections, (Boston, MA: Pauline Books & Media,
2008), 53.
[17]
Augustine of Hippo, St. Augustin: On the
Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises, 1887, 3, 274.
[18]
Catholic Biblical Association (Great Britain), The Holy Bible:
Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, (New York: National
Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, 1994), Je 17:9.
[19] Ibid.,
Pr 28:26.
[20] Ibid.,
Je 17:5.
[21] New American Bible,
Revised Edition., (Washington, DC: The United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops, 2011), Jn 8:32.
[22]
Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est,
(Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2005).
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