This last week, I was able to spend a few days down in southern ohio with a group of priest friends. We spent our days hiking, reading, and praying. The cabin in which we stayed was very remote, it had a mile long drive up a forested hill, so it was a bit quieter than my lodgings here on west blvd. But more dramatically than the quiet was the dark. The night sky was completely devoid of light pollution; what a blessing it was to be able to look up and see the stars.
I felt a little bit like Dante, who I’ve been reading all summer, as I’ve mentioned. For, at the end of each of the books of the Divine Comedy, Dante looks up into the heavens to see stars. At the very center, he very middle line of his 14,233 line epic poem, line 72 of canto 17 of the purgatorio, Dante looks up and sees stars surrounding him on every side.
Contrast that to how the poem begins: in the middle of his life, Dante finds himself shrouded in darkness, in the middle of dark wood, confronted by the dark guilt of his vicious sins—lust, wrath, and avarice. He’s lost and confused, and he can’t see the light. One of the reasons of his journey into the underground of hell, is to help him understand what will be lost if he allows himself to remain in the darkness. He will be deprived of the stars and the light of God forever.
In the Gospel today, Jesus tells the parable of the rich man who dies and because of his unrepetance, his refusal to see in this life will be deprived of the sight of God in eternity. He refused to see rightly. He refused to see poor Lazarus on his doorstep. He refused to see his duty toward the man in need.
Now recognize: the rich man is sent to hell not simply because he was rich. We aren’t told that he earned his money in an immoral way. He wasn’t selling guns to terrorists or involved in human trafficking. Nor, are we told that he was particularly malicious toward Lazarus--he didn’t mock Lazarus, send his dogs to assault him, or abuse him physically or emotionally. In the parable—it seems that the rich man is sent to Hell because he was so blind that he didn’t even see the struggling dying man at his front door. His self-absorption and his riches blinded him.
Throughout the Gospels, it becomes very clear that we will be judged on how we treat others. And not only by the direct sins of malice, our sins of omission, our failures to love God and neighbor, and to show mercy, have eternal consequences.
But what about Lazarus? What made him worthy of heaven? Is it simply because he was hungry? After all, we aren’t told of a single good deed he ever performed. He’s not praised by Jesus like the poor widow for giving what little he had to others. We are simply told his name. But that is actually something quite profound.
In all of the parables of Jesus, the parable of the prodigal son, the dishonest steward, the good Samaritan, the wise and foolish virgins, the persistent widow, this is the only parable in which a character in the story has a name. And so we should take note. The name “Lazarus” is the Greek version of the Hebrew name “Eliezer” which means “God is my help.”
If his name is any indicator of his personality and his spiritual, Lazarus was not just a poor man, but a man who believed and trusted in God. Lazarus therefore embodies the first and most important of the beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. We are all to be like Lazarus—our whole identity should be based on recognition of the need for God’s help. To be filled with the light of God we must recognize our utter need of God.
The rich man in the parable is rich in everything except what matters most. He lacks the one thing that really matters: having a mind and soul turned toward God. Had his soul been turned toward God, he would have noticed the poor man dying on his front door and done something about it.
The rich man has walled himself into the darkness of his mansion. His sight is not set on God, nor the other, and so he is filled with darkness. Elsewhere, the Lord teaches “The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be.” The rich man fails to see rightly, he fails to be filled with the light, and so he will be banished to the darkness forever.
Now most of us don’t live in mansions; but we are certainly challenged by this Gospel. Is my life filled with the light of God. The Lord says in John’s Gospel, “He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness still, but He who loves his brother abides in the light.” To be filled with the light of God we must also learn to see our brother as God sees him, with perfect love.
Additionally, St. Paul explains in our second reading this weekend, how Christians must “pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.” Are these spiritual fruits evident in you? They are necessary if you wish dwell in the light of God.
Pursue Righteousness, Our feelings, our ideas, the passions of our bodies, do not always conform with righteousness. And, so righteousness often involves a real struggle. Our culture says give-in to every appetite, indulge in every craving, follow every inclination, believe whatever you want. But that’s not the way of life. Are you pursuing righteousness with real effort?
Next Paul says, Pursue Devotion. The Greek word here is Eusebia, a great word. Are you devoted to God? Is your devotion to God evident in your speech, in your actions, in private, in public? Devotion to God demands ardent affection for him—a yielding of the heart to him with reverence in prayer, meditation, and works charity.
The daily examination of conscience, at the end of the day examining your choices, attitudes, behaviors, again, is a vital spiritual exercise. Before bed, we do well to identify where have I, like the rich man in today’s Gospel failed to see rightly; what habits, what attachments are keeping me from seeing what God wants me to see? In the first reading, Amos condemns the complacent? Where have I been complacent toward injustice, with selfishness?
That daily examination is indispensable in getting serious about your spiritual life. For through it, God sheds his light into our hearts, and helps us to see those dark places that he wants to convert.
May our celebration of the Eucharist today, help us to see rightly in this life, to be filled with the light and love of God, that we may come to share in the beatitude of God in eternal light, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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