Rich Man and Lazarus

'My child, remember that you received
what was good during your lifetime
while Lazarus likewise received what was bad;
but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented.’

Why does it seem that a man deserves to be condemned because he has received an abundance of good things and consolations while still on earth. After all, given his very demanding public ministry, Jesus often had to rely on some wealthy friends to assist the ministry financially. It is believed, that one of Jesus’ closest friend’s, Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead, had a heavy bank roll.

There are many examples from Scripture of men and women of exceptional economic status who may rightly be classified as super Saints. In the Old Testament, before the rise of Jewish Kings, there was no one wealthier than Abraham, but more importantly there was no one more faithful and obedient to God than he. He tithed 10 percent of all his substantial property to the Priest Melchizadek.

This sacrifice, though, is nothing compared to his desire to give to God his most valuable treasure of all: his son Isaac: that which was his best and most beautiful treasure. The life of Abraham is a reminder that one is not made good or evil by things as such; rather, it is from one’s heart that charity and evil flows.

Abraham challenges us to remember our own story, the greatest living story of all: “For God so loved the world that He sent His only Son.” His only Son, the eternal God Jesus Christ our Savior, who is sacrificed by the Father and the Holy Virgin so that we might enjoy the treasures of peace, joy and love in Heaven forever.

There is no greater treasure than Jesus Christ…no greater wealth that eternal life. But there is a price for such an accumulation of wealth. Ask the athlete about the price that must be paid for the championship trophy…the sacrifice of one’s whole body, so much time, perhaps the sacrifice of relationships and legitimate enjoyments…

Perhaps extending over many years before at last raising the trophy over one’s head…basking in the glory of victory, that is until spring training once again rears its ugly head…so temporary is the sense of accomplishment in this all too quickly passing life.

That is unless we inject into all our activities and attitudes the spiritual, which is referred to as God’s grace…or the living power and presence of God…which will prolong that sensation of goodness and effort through eternity.

But sadly, too often and too many are imprisoned by the preoccupations of this world and too easily conform themselves and their interests to little that has to do with God. And this is why the Rich Man winds up in hell…not for a day, week or month…but forever.

The fact that he was rich did not land him in hell…in fact, his lavish lifestyle provided many people with needed employment. But there is the figure of Lazarus at the door. And notice that the Rich Man has no name and that the poor man does. This is an indication of how close and intimate God is to those who love him…as Abraham is mentioned by name as well.

It is as though the Rich Man, being preoccupied with his self centered interests, loses his identity, his humanity if you will. What a dangerous formula, to be so focused on self as to literally become a no one in God’s eyes.

Lazarus was not some malnutritioned person from some far off country in Africa: he was right at the door of the Rich Man. How easy God had made it for him to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned, give shelter to the homeless.

God so identifies with the poor that Jesus in speaking of the Last Judgment says: that which you do to the least of my brothers and sisters you do to me; because of the Incarnation and Christ’s continued presence here on earth in His body the Church, whatever good or bad we do to each other we literally do to Jesus Christ…man and God.

And this is the great lesson of the life of our patroness Saint Therese, whose Feast Day we celebrate tomorrow. Life is about charity…which is love…not any love, not even human love…but charity is the love of God infused into our person by grace, especially sacramental graces.

Jesus commands us: love one another as I have loved you…and the dominant image of Jesus’ love for you and I is not His emergence from an empty tomb, but crucified to a Cross.

Having been given so much in the way of grace, Saint Therese identifies herself as a Rich, accumulating the wealth of God’s love and incredible devotion to her. But there is now a very different poor man at the door, it is the man, woman and child who self inflict themselves with the wounds of thirst for God’s love.

It is the haunting cry of Christ from the Cross: “I thirst”. It is the spiritual poverty of the unbeliever, the agnostic, or worst of all Christian who abandons, ridicules or simply ignores the gift of his or her faith, jeopardizing their eternal salvation as the Rich Man had done with the terrible preoccupations of this world.

What Saint Therese would give in order to feed these spiritually impoverished is no less than her whole life…descending into a darkness whose tunnel would many years later admit the heroic likes of a Mother Theresa of Calcutta and Padre Pio.

As Saint Therese would admit: “I have realized that suffering has charms, that it is by the Cross that one saves sinners.” And rather than tossing scraps of material foods and riches to the impoverished, she would feed them with her life…with her body and heart, with all her sufferings…incorporating into her own body that which all Catholics must do: the living, breathing Holy Sacrifice of the Mass…becoming who she consumes in the Eucharist…the living and suffering Christ.

In her journal she revealed: “God permitted my soul to be swamped by the thickest darkness, so that the thought of Heaven which had been so sweet to me became nothing but a subject of battle and torment.” Having been plunged into this awful darkness, it is so that she might be able to identify with the greatest suffering and greatest deprivation of all: the sinner without God…who refuses and ignores God…who rejects pure and total love…which is the essence of hell.

Her acceptance of darkness, her participation in the torment of Christ on the Cross, the brutality of his thirst, identifies our darkness as a thirst for God, and at the same time assures us that in this darkness Christ is there thirsting for our love…for He is both God and Man.

We are not called upon to sacrifice from our surplus. A team handing over their tenth round pick to a last place team is not necessarily being overly generous. And we run the risk also in writing out checks or putting money in cans that take only about 45 seconds, to never once catch a glimpse of real faces, desperate to experience real love and affection.

But if we reach into our wallet of time, and there begin to pull out wads of cash in the form of attending Mass, praying the Rosary, involving oneself in Church activities or charitable events, tithing faithfully, then we will feel the sting of sacrifice.

Then we will feel the splinters of the Cross digging into skin, digging into our hearts and souls. Saint Therese never left her convent and she died very young, having accomplished so much both as a Super Saint and Doctor of the Church. Why? Because she bank rolled programs eradicating world hunger? No.

She was often found praying…meditating on God’s word…loving the sacraments…praying the Rosary despite her repugnance for its repetitious format. The most precious commodity we have is not our stocks and bonds, but our time and prayer.