2 Corinthians 11:31-12:9;
Luke 16:19-31
There is perhaps no more powerful
example of our need for Christ’s healing of our souls than that contained in today’s
gospel reading. A rich man with the
benefit of the great spiritual heritage of Abraham, Moses, and the prophets had
become such a slave to gratifying his desires for indulgence in pleasure that
he had become completely blind to his responsibility to show mercy to Lazarus,
a miserable beggar who wanted only crumbs and whose only comfort was when dogs
licked his open sores. The rich man’s
life revolved around wearing the most expensive clothes and enjoying the finest
food and drink, even as he surely stepped over or around Lazarus at the
entrance to his home on a regular basis and never did anything at all to
relieve his suffering.
After their deaths, the two men’s
situations were reversed. The rich man
had spent his life rejecting the teachings of Moses and the prophets about the
necessity of showing mercy to the poor.
He had blinded himself spiritually to the point that he could not recognize
Lazarus as a neighbor who bore the image of God. He remained blind to the love of God after his
death and could perceive the divine majesty as only a burning flame of
torment. When the rich man asked Father
Abraham to send Lazarus to his brothers to warn them of the consequences of
living such a depraved life, the great patriarch responded, “‘If they do not
hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should
rise from the dead.’”
That statement applies to the corrupt
nationalistic religious leaders who called for Christ’s crucifixion and denied
His resurrection because they wanted only a warrior king who would slaughter
their enemies and give them earthly power.
We must not rest content, however, with seeing how the Lord’s statement applies
to others, for it should challenge us even more as those who have received the
fullness of the mystery of God’s salvation.
Our responsibility is far greater than that of the Jews of old, for as
members of Christ’s Body, the Church, the Holy Spirit strengthens and sustains
us in seeing and serving our Lord in our neighbors. Since
every neighbor is an icon of God, how we treat them reveals our relationship to
Him. Christ taught that what we do “to
the least of these,” to the most wretched people, we do to Him. If we become so obsessed with gratifying
ourselves or appearing successful that we refuse to convey His mercy to our
neighbors, our actions will show that we have rejected our Messiah and denied
the truth of His resurrection, for we will then be unable to bear witness to His
victory over the corrupting power of sin and death. Regardless of what we say we believe, our
actions will demonstrate that we want no part of the salvation that He has
brought to the world. Like the rich man, we will exclude ourselves
from the joy of the Kingdom. Remember
the words of the Lord: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall
enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in
heaven.” (Matt. 7:21)
Lazarus, like everyone else, bore
the image and likeness of God. There is simply
no way around the basic truth that how we relate to our neighbors reveals how
we relate to our Lord. What we do for
even the most miserable and inconvenient people we encounter in life, we do for
Christ. And what we refuse to do for
them, we refuse to do for our Savior.
Our salvation is in becoming more like Him as we find the healing of our
souls by cooperating with His grace. While
we cannot save ourselves any more than we can rise up by our own power from the
grave, we must obey His commandments in order to open our souls in humility to
receive His healing mercy as we become more like Him as “partakers of the
divine nature.” If we do not do that, we will suffer the spiritual blindness of
the rich man in today’s gospel lesson and bring judgment upon ourselves,
regardless of how much or how little of the world’s treasures we have.
In the midst of our materialistic
and consumeristic culture, it is easy to overlook St. Paul’s warning that
“Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into
many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For
the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” (1 Tim. 6: 9-10) It was surely the love of money that
led the rich man in today’s parable to become so enslaved to gratifying
self-centered desire that he closed his heart completely to concern for his
neighbors, even those so obviously suffering right before his eyes. Because he
would not show love for poor Lazarus, he degraded himself to the point that he
could not love God. St. John wrote, “If someone says, ‘I love
God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother
whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” (1 Jn. 4:20) The
Lord Himself taught that love of God and neighbor are the greatest of the
commandments. (Matt. 22: 37-40). It is no surprise, then, that the rich man
experienced the torment of bitter regret after his death, for he was in the
eternal presence of the Lord Whom he had rejected throughout his life. He had turned away decisively from God’s love
and was capable of perceiving the divine glory as only a burning flame. As St. Basil the Great proclaimed to the rich
who refused to share with the poor, “You showed no mercy; it will not be shown to
you. You opened not your house; you will
be expelled from the Kingdom. You gave
not your bread; you will not receive eternal life.”
Unlike those whose who ground their
identity in the world’s power and wealth, we must learn to see and serve our
Lord in light of the apparent weakness of His Cross, for as St. Paul wrote, “God
chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in
the world to shame the strong.” (1 Cor. 1: 27) He refers to his own “thorn in
the flesh,” about which he received the divine word: “’My grace is sufficient
for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Most gladly therefore [he
wrote] will I rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest
upon me.”
To take the time
to see and serve Christ in our needy and inconvenient neighbors will appear
weak and foolish in the eyes of many in our self-centered, materialistic
culture. Doing so also may well go against
the grain of our own desires for gaining all the comfort, ease, and status that
we can in this life. The more we invest
our resources, time, and attention in serving the poor, sick, confused, and otherwise
needy people in whom we encounter the Savior, the weaker we will be according
to the standards of those who live only to serve themselves and impress their
neighbors with the signs of wealth and power.
The more that we fight our self-centered desires to convey the Lord’s
mercy to our neighbors, the more that we will cultivate the humility necessary
to see ourselves clearly as those who remain weak before our passions. Our
hearts will then be softened toward our weak neighbors who need us to convey to
them the philanthropic generosity that we have received from Him.
Since the Savior
taught that “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” this is a
struggle that we must embrace if we hope to acquire the spiritual clarity necessary
to overcome the blindness of the rich man, who could no longer recognize poor
Lazarus as an icon of God or the divine glory as anything but a tormenting
fire. (Matt. 6:21) There is nothing like
sacrificing in tangible ways for the sake of our neighbors to open our hearts
to receive the healing mercy of the Lord.
That is why He said, “In that you did it to one of the least of these my
brethren, you did it to me.” (Matt.
25:40)
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