Today’s parable sketches a striking contrast between the situation of the rich man and Lazarus – the former “dressed in purple and linen
and feasting splendidly every day,” while the latter, covered with sores, longed in vain to eat “the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table.” Such a striking contrast persists even after death. But the situations are reversed. While the poor Lazarus is among “the living,” enjoying the happiness coming from God’s love (the meaning of “the bosom of Abraham”), the rich man finds himself in torment in the “netherworld” or hell. One can rightly conclude that the rich man deserves that treatment. He asked for it through his life of selfish enjoyment of his riches and callous indifference to the sad plight of the poor begging at the gate of his palace. There comes a time when people have to account for their behaviour and either bears the shame of it or savour the reward they deserve. Since there is a just God, no one should be surprised that the rascals and the exploiters pay dearly for their impenitent life and their persistent refusal to be converted. What surprises us, however, is to see that after almost twenty centuries since the severe warning coming from this parable, “Lazarus” has become the name of hundreds of millions of human beings. Even in so-called “Christian” societies and communities, we still have so many millions who, like the Lazarus of the parable, “long to eat the scraps that fall from the rich man’s table.” And all this because in the same society there thrives a tiny minority of avid individuals or groups bent on amassing and jealously keeping for themselves the resources which God has intended for all men. We are today reminded of our duty to be sensitive to the plight of our neighbours and to do our best to assist them in their needs. One day all of us will have to account for the way we have treated them to the God who is the protector of the needy and the marginalized.
HOLY SPIRIT: INSPIRE US
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LOVING GOD IN THE NEEDY AND THE FORSAKEN
