The 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time, September 25, 2022

The year passes so quickly!

Luke 16, 19–31

Jesus said to the Pharisees: “There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores. When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and from the netherworld, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames.’ Abraham replied, ‘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. Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.’ He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment.’ But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’ He said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ Then Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.’ ”

St. Luke here presents to us a parable that includes the name of one of the characters, a singular feature among the parables.  It is also singular in its graphic description of suffering.  While all of the Lord’s parables perplex and sometimes disturb, this particular parable is most definitely not for the weak of stomach.  Yet it is very necessarily for us to hear and to learn from so that we might avoid the fate of the unnamed condemned man.

“There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day.”  The Lord indicates that the man, not satisfied with having great wealth, felt the need to parade it around as well.  “And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table.”  The Greek word translated as “lying” means something else entirely: “had been cast”, “had been thrown”, “had been dropped”.  Perhaps the translator found these options too harsh, but that is what the Greek word means.  The verb is used to describe what a warrior does with his spear, for instance.  The verb is also in the pluperfect passive: some action “had been” done to or with him by someone else.  Someone, then, had picked Lazarus up at some point and thrown him up against the rich man’s “large gate”, “gateway”, or “porch”.  Lazarus had not been able to move himself from that place.  It is not clear whether the person(s) who threw him at the gate or porch did this so that someone in the grand house might take notice of him and feed him or as an insult to the rich man inside, cluttering up his property in this way.  This is suggested by the fact that the rich man made no move to help Lazarus.  At the same time, he did not have him removed, his stench, the dogs, the flies, and all.  Perhaps this was because his interior reflected Lazarus’s exterior.  There was a connection between them that the rich man will seek to exploit in the next world.

“When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and from the netherworld, where he was in torment.”  Whereas before he had been hurled or dumped at the gate of the merciless rich man, Lazarus is now borne aloft on the loving arms of the holy angels who behold the face of God.  They left him off at the “bosom of Abraham”, that is, fully embraced as his child by our father in faith.  Through the faith of Abraham, a land flowing with milk and honey was promised to his descendants; Abraham himself has become the gateway or porch to the country of heaven signified by that earthly land.  His bosom is not heaven, but a place or warmth and comfort for those awaiting the opening of heaven by the Lord Jesus.  Luke uses the word “Hades”, familiar to the Greeks, instead of transliterating the Hebrew “Sheol” as he might have done, to describe the punishments inflicted upon the rich man.  He is not at a gate or a porch, and the gate to heaven is separated from him by an immense gulf that cannot be crossed.  As Lazarus was pitched at the gateway to his fabulous house, he has been dumped into the abyss of hell.

The Lord Jesus presents no new doctrine here regarding the existence of a heaven and hell and a sort of temporary limbo of peace provided for those who are to be saved with the Lord’s Resurrection.  The Lord does confirm this doctrine, which developed over time from the earliest beliefs in Sheol, a shadowy underworld.  

“He raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.”  The Greek has, “in his bosom”.  Abraham is holding Lazarus close.  The fact that the rich man could see the peace and consolation of Lazarus is part of his punishment, a manifestation of God’s justice.  Likewise, that Abraham could speak to the rich man indicates that he can see him.  The just look upon the damned without gloating or feeling personal satisfaction, but rejoicing in the justice of Almighty God which is delayed to give space for possible repentance but finally and irrevocably is fulfilled.  At the end of the world, at the great manifestation of God’s justice, the just will glance at the wicked as they are cast into hell, but will from then on fully occupy themselves with the dazzling sight of the Holy Trinity.

“Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames.’ ”  We should not imagine a calm exchange of thoughts here, for the former rich man is screaming in his agony.  His character has not changed much since his being dumped into hell as though garbage to be burned: he even tries to manipulate Abraham.  The latter, however, is not moved from his serene state and is not distracted from Lazarus, whom he cradles just as a parent cradles a child who has suffered some terrible trauma.  

The crowd would have heard this parable in breathless silence.  Because the Lord gives the poor man’s name and seems not wishing to defile himself by speaking the rich man’s name, and because of the details the Lord provides, it seems to me that the crowd had known them.  Former friends of the rich man in that case would have been present in the crowd.  Perhaps the events in the parable had occurred a few years previously, before the Lord had come to the town, so that he would have shocked people that he knew of this case, which to them was just an ordinary event in the life of the town.  Possibly the shock of the Lord’s words and his revelation of the true fates of these two men threw the people of the town into a desperate rethinking of their lives and of their need to repent.  We can hope.  The Lord’s final words, however, sound like a kind of foreshadowing: “If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.”