Gospel: February 29, 2024
February 29, 2024 (Thursday)
2nd Week of Lent
Psalter: Week 2 / (Violet)
Responsorial Psalm: 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: “A drop of water”
With too much self-focus, abundance may imply a wastage. In abundance, we tend not to see the little things around us and we hardly see those who are in dire need of our help. In today’s Gospel, Jesus told the parable of rich man and Lazarus. Lazarus, in his abject condition, ate the scraps falling from the rich man’s table. The rich man was indifferently unmindful of the condition of Lazarus. In his abundance he could not care enough, unmindful that the scraps he took for granted were already life for Lazarus. Both of them died. Lazarus went to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man suffered torment in the netherworld. It is interesting to reflect that when the rich man was being tormented by fire he came to realize the importance of a drop of water as he requested that Lazarus dip his finger in water in order to cool his tongue. As Christians, we do not need to wait for the afterlife in order to see the value of the little things we tend to set aside. Let us open our hearts to the people we might be ignoring, alleviating their sufferings in the best way we can.
