Thursday March 17, 2022

 

 

Thursday of 2nd Week in Lent

 

People Suffer. See Their Needs

Those who place their faith in themselves and in the means they possess are not open to God or God’s kingdom. They make themselves their own gods and adore what they have made. They adore the golden calf. They fail to see the needs of others, especially of the poor. Those who have more are not condemned because they have more, but because they don’t see the needs of those who have less. We must learn to see also the unspoken needs of the poor, especially of the humble, of those who dare not voice their poverty and distress.

                          

First Reading : Jeremiah 17:5-10 

God’s Message:

“Cursed is the strong one
    who depends on mere humans,
Who thinks he can make it on muscle alone
    and sets God aside as dead weight.
He’s like a tumbleweed on the prairie,
    out of touch with the good earth.
He lives rootless and aimless
    in a land where nothing grows.

 “But blessed is the man who trusts me, God,
    the woman who sticks with God.
They’re like trees replanted in Eden,
    putting down roots near the rivers—
Never a worry through the hottest of summers,
    never dropping a leaf,
Serene and calm through droughts,
    bearing fresh fruit every season.

 “The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful,
    a puzzle that no one can figure out.
But I, God, search the heart
    and examine the mind.
I get to the heart of the human.
    I get to the root of things.
I treat them as they really are,
    not as they pretend to be.”

 

Gospel: Luke 16:19-31 

 “There once was a rich man, expensively dressed in the latest fashions, wasting his days in conspicuous consumption. A poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, had been dumped on his doorstep. All he lived for was to get a meal from scraps off the rich man’s table. His best friends were the dogs who came and licked his sores.

 “Then he died, this poor man, and was taken up by the angels to the lap of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell and in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham in the distance and Lazarus in his lap. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, mercy! Have mercy! Send Lazarus to dip his finger in water to cool my tongue. I’m in agony in this fire.’

 “But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that in your lifetime you got the good things and Lazarus the bad things. It’s not like that here. Here he’s consoled and you’re tormented. Besides, in all these matters there is a huge chasm set between us so that no one can go from us to you even if he wanted to, nor can anyone cross over from you to us.’

 “The rich man said, ‘Then let me ask you, Father: Send him to the house of my father where I have five brothers, so he can tell them the score and warn them so they won’t end up here in this place of torment.’

 “Abraham answered, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets to tell them the score. Let them listen to them.’

 “‘I know, Father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but they’re not listening. If someone came back to them from the dead, they would change their ways.’

 “Abraham replied, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the Prophets, they’re not going to be convinced by someone who rises from the dead.’”

 

Prayer

Lord our God,
many of us never had it so good
and so we have become smug and self-satisfied,
happy in our own little world.
God, may our ears remain open to your word
and our hearts to you
and to our brothers and sisters.
Do not allow us to forget you,
or to place our trust in ourselves.
Make us restless for you
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Reflection:

“To the hungry belongs the bread that you withhold”

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”.

 

Video available on Youtube: “To the hungry belongs the bread that you withhold”