Gospel: March 20, 2025
March 20, 2025 (Thursday)
2nd Week of Lent
Psalter: Week 2
(Violet)
Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 & 6
Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
1st Reading: Jeremiah 17:5-10
Gospel: Luke 16:19-31
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 the netherworld where he was in torment, the rich man 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, 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 dead.’”
Reflection:
“God has helped.”
“I reward each one according to his ways and the fruit of his deeds.” Today’s Gospel looks at the eternal reward of two men, one who has suffered but trusted in God, and is carried to the Bosom of Abraham, and the other who has trusted in himself and his riches so much that he separates himself from God for all eternity. The poor man is called Lazarus, a name which means “God has helped.” It might sound ironic at first, given the state of man in his sickness, loneliness and poverty.
But he is not alone. God is with him in his suffering, and God gives him eternal rest and comfort for his patient trust. The rich man, in contrast lacks trust in God, and lacks awareness of the plight of others, even those who are right at his door! He has to walk past Lazarus to enter his house, but he doesn’t even notice him, as he’s so wrapped up in love of self, just as he is wrapped up in purple and fine linen. Let us break the shell of self-interest and get interested in others. May we be instruments rather than obstacles to God’s help.
