Thursday,
March 21, 2019
2nd Week of Lent
1st Reading: Jer 17:5-10
Gospel: Luke 16:19-31
Jesus said to his disciples, “Once there was a rich man who dressed in purple and fine linen and feasted every day. At his gate lay Lazarus, a poor man covered with sores, who longed to eat just the scraps falling from the rich man’s table. Even dogs used to come and lick his sores. It happened that the poor man died and angels carried him to take his place with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. From hell where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham afar off, and with him Lazarus at rest.
He called out: ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus with the tip of his finger dipped in water to cool my tongue, for I suffer so much in this fire.’
Abraham replied: ‘My son, remember that in your lifetime you were well-off while the lot of Lazarus was misfortune. Now he is in comfort and you are in agony. But that is not all. Between your place and ours a great chasm has been fixed, so that no one can cross over from here to you or from your side to us.’
The rich man implored once more: ‘Then I beg you, Father Abraham, to send Lazarus to my father’s house where my five brothers live. Let him warn them so that they may not end up in this place of torment.’ Abraham replied: ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’ But the rich man said: ‘No, Father Abraham. But if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
Abraham said: ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the grave.’”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
When a Christian is not doing bad, it does not automatically mean he is doing good. Christianity is a positive religion. On Judgment Day the life of a Christian is evaluated under the lens of love. Under this lens, Christians who do nothing bad can still commit the so-called sin of omission if they do nothing positive. Omission was the sin of the rich man in today’s Gospel reading. While he did not mistreat Lazarus, neither did he treat him to a dinner befitting a human person.
The likes of the rich man perpetuate closet paganism. Closet pagans do no harm in order to avoid trouble. But they have many reasons not to actively address the needs of others. The same could be said of their relationship with God.
They do no sin because they fear the loss of heaven and the pains of hell. But they do not really love God for the deeper reason that God deserves all human love. It still boils down to selfishness.
Only genuine love will move us to do something positive to the likes of Lazarus whose life depends on the tiniest morsel of our wastage. – (Atty.) Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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