Coffee With God

Reflection: Luke 16:19-31

Gospel helps us to understand what it means to love. In the parable, the rich man has a sickness much greater than that of Lazarus’, who was “full of sores” : this rich man suffers from terrible blindness, because he is not able to look beyond his world, made of banquets and fine clothing. He cannot see beyond the door of his house to where Lazarus lies. This worldliness is like a “black hole” that swallows up what is good, which extinguishes love, because it consumes everything in its very self. Pope Francis commenting on this Gospel says: “Excluding Lazarus, the rich man has not taken into account the Lord or his law, because to ignore the poor is to despise God! Lázarus represents well the silent cry of the poor of all times and the contradiction of a world in which immense riches and resources are in the hands of few … The rich will be condemned not for their riches, but for having been unable to feel compassion for the Lazaruses and to help them… God’s mercy is linked to our mercy towards our neighbour; when we ignore the poor at our doorstep, mercy of God too does not find space in our closed heart, God’s mercy cannot enter. … If I do not open the door of my heart to the poor, that door also remains closed for God and this is terrible …Remember the Magnificat of Mary: He casts the mighty from their throne, he lifted up the lowly; With this parable Jesus teaches the essentials of compassion and the danger of riches that closes the eyes and the heart towards the needs of our brothers and sisters. Lent reminds us that this is the right time to convert and look for the Lazaruses who await us for they are in need of a helping hand. Beware of the indifference that closes the heart to such situations of poverty and marginality! Be careful not to close the door of our hearts to the much sufferings of others, because the only credentials before God will be our works of mercy with the poor! Well, “learning to look at the poor from their poverty, the sick from their illness or the marginalized from their marginalization is the goal of a well-understood charity,” says the Pope. Let me leave you with two thoughts from Saint Basil the Great: The poor is not the one who has no wealth, but the one who refuses to share his wealth. “He was so poor that he only had money.” And the food and clothing that you do not need today does not belong to you. “To the hungry belongs the bread that you withhold; and to naked man the jacket that you guard, jealousy, in your treasure box”.