A Catholic priest (not sure of his name) wrote the following in regard to
Sunday's Mass Gospel reading, St Luke 16:19 (full Gospel passage follows)
Emphasis and bracketed words are mine (Forkintheroad7)
My sisters and brothers, in the Gospel of our Mass this weekend [
St Luke 16:19 (following)] we have Jesus telling us the story of the rich man who feasted sumptuously every day and refused to share even the crumbs from his table with a starving beggar at his gate. Try to picture the scene… We are all tainted with selfishness. We do not find it easy to share our possessions with others. We find it even harder to share ourselves with them. But we are all beggars before God. We need [to beg for God’s] forgiveness especially for our refusal to share. We should pray for this forgiveness as we participate in our Sunday [Mass].
No human being, much less a follower of Jesus, can say that he is responsible only for himself, and that his neighbor’s plight is none of his business. Otherwise, he speaks like Cain who [denied being his] brother’s keeper, and acts like Dives—the rich man in [this] parable—who was so cushioned by his lavish lifestyle that he was… oblivious to the presence of a needy person at his gate and
treated him as if he were less than nothing, or part of the scenery. The frightening thing about the parable of Jesus is this: Dives, the rich man, was obviously a believer.
He had heard what the Scriptures had to say, but clearly its message had not penetrated beyond his ears. It had not converted him. His heart remained like a stone. And there is no place in the Kingdom of Heaven for a person like that…
It is not easy to convert the rich. It is like this:
the more people have, the more they have to lose. The more people have to lose, the more fearful they become… the more defensive they get… The result is that they end up with a withered heart. And it is [virtually] impossible to breathe life into a withered heart. To close one’s heart is to begin to die, to open one’s heart is to begin to live. At the end of the day, it is not what we carry in our… wallets or bank accounts that matters. What matters is what we carry in our hearts. That is where the rich man was found wanting.
Poverty of the heart is the worst form of poverty. May our generous Lord inspire us to be generous of heart like Him to those in need.
Gospel of Luke 16:19
The Rich Man and Lazarus
There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
“But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
“He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
“Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
“‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
Me: Amazing--wouldn't believe even if one were to rise from the dead!
That's some serious obstinacy
