Posted on 09/29/2019 7:48:47 AM PDT by Salvation
This Sunday’s Gospel about the rich man and Lazarus contains some important teachings on judgment and Hell. We live in times in which many consider the teachings on Hell to be untenable. They struggle to understand how a God described as loving, merciful, and forgiving could assign certain souls to Hell forever. Despite the fact that the Doctrine of Hell is taught extensively in Scripture as well as by Jesus Himself, it does not comport well with many modern notions and so many people think that it has to go.
The parable addresses some of the modern concerns about Hell. Prior to looking at the reading, it is important to understand why Hell has to exist. I have written on that topic extensively here. What follows is a brief summary of that lengthier article.
Hell must exist for one essential reason: respect. God has made us free and respects our freedom to choose His Kingdom or not. The Kingdom of God is not a mere abstraction. It has some very specific values, and these are realized and experienced perfectly in Heaven.
The values of the Kingdom of God include love, kindness, forgiveness, justice to the poor, generosity, humility, mercy, chastity, love of Scripture, love of the truth, worship of God, and the centrality of God.
Unfortunately, there are many people who do not want anything to do with those values, and God will not force them to. Everyone may want to go to Heaven, but Heaven is not merely what we want it to be; it is what it is, as God has set it forth. Heaven is the Kingdom of God and its values in all their fullness.
There are some (many, according to Jesus) who live in a way that consistently demonstrates their lack of interest in Heaven. They do this by showing that they are not interested in one or many of the Kingdom’s values. Hell “has to be” because God respects people’s freedom to choose to live in this way. Because such people demonstrate that they do not want Heaven, God respects their freedom to choose “other arrangements.”
In a way, this is what Jesus says in John’s Gospel, when He states that judgment is about what we prefer: And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil (John 3:19). In the end, you get what you want: light or darkness. Sadly, many prefer the darkness. The day of judgment discloses our final preference; God respects that even if it is not what He would want for us
This leads us to the Gospel, which we will look at in three stages.
I. The Ruin of the Rich Man – As the Gospel opens, we see a rich man (some call him Dives, which simply means “rich”). There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day.
It is clear that he lives very well and has the ability to help the poor man, Lazarus, who is outside his gate. But he does not do so.
The rich man’s sin is not so much one of hate as of indifference. He is living in open rejection of one of the Kingdom’s most important values: love of the poor. His insensitivity is literally a “damnable sin”; it lands him in Hell. His ruin is his insensitivity to the poor.
The care of the poor may be a complicated matter, and there may be different ways of approaching it, but we can we never consider ourselves exempt if it is within our means to help. We cannot avoid judgment for greed and insensitivity. As God said in last week’s reading regarding those who are insensitive to the poor, The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Never will I forget a thing they have done (Amos 8:7). God may well “forget” many of our sins (cf Is 43:23; Heb 8:12), but apparently disregarding the needs of the poor isn’t one of them.
This rich man has repeatedly rejected the Kingdom by his greed and insensitivity. He lands in Hell because he doesn’t want Heaven, where the poor are exalted (cf Luke 1:52).
Abraham explains the great reversal to him: My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented.
II. The Rigidity of the Rich Man – You might expect the rich man to have a change of heart and repent, but he does not. Looking up into Heaven, he sees Lazarus next to Abraham, but rather than finally recognizing Lazarus’ dignity and seeking his forgiveness, he tells Abraham to send Lazarus to Hell with a pail of water to refresh him. The rich man still sees Lazarus as beneath him (even though he has to look up to see him); he sees Lazarus as an errand boy.
Notice that the rich man does not ask to be admitted to Heaven! Although he is unhappy with where he is, he still does not seem to desire Heaven and the Kingdom of God with all its values. He has not really changed. He regrets his current torment but does not see Heaven as a solution. Neither does he want to appreciate Lazarus’ exalted state. The rich man wants to draw Lazarus back to the lower place he once occupied.
This helps to explain why Hell is eternal. It would seem that there is a mystery of the human person that we must come to accept: we reach a point in life when our character is forever fixed, when we can no longer change. When exactly this occurs is not clear; perhaps it is at the moment of death itself.
The Fathers of the Church often thought of the human person as clay on a potter’s wheel. As long as it is on the wheel and moist it can be molded, but when the clay is taken off the wheel and placed in the fiery kiln (fire is judgment day (cf 1 Cor 3:15)), its shape is forever fixed.
The rich man manifests this fixed quality. He is unhappy with his torments, even wanting to warn his brothers, but apparently he does not intend to change or somehow he is unable to change.
This is the basis for the teaching that Hell is eternal: once having encountered our fiery judgment, we will no longer be able to change. Our decision against the Kingdom of God and its values (a decision that God, in sadness, respects) will be forever fixed.
III. The Reproof for the Rest of Us – The rich man, though he cannot or will not change, would like to warn his brothers. He thinks that perhaps if Lazarus would rise from the dead and warn them, they would repent!
We are the rich man’s brethren, and we are hereby warned. The rich man wanted exotic measures, but Abraham said, “They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.” “Oh no, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.” Then Abraham said, “If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.”
This reply is dripping with irony, given Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.
We should not need miraculous signs to bring us conversion. The phrase “they have Moses and the prophets” is a Jewish way of saying that they have Scripture.
The Scriptures are clear to lay out the way before us. They give us the road map to Heaven and we only need to follow it. We ought not to need an angel or a ghost or some extraordinary sign. The Scriptures and the teachings of the Church should be sufficient.
Their message is clear enough: daily prayer, daily Scripture, weekly Eucharist, frequent confession, and repentance all lead to a change of heart wherein we begin to love the Kingdom of God and its values. We become more merciful, kind, generous, loving toward the poor and needy, patient, chaste, devout, and self-controlled.
Hell exists! It has to exist because we have a free choice to make, and God will respect that choice even if he does not prefer it.
Each of us is free to choose the Kingdom of God—or not. This Gospel makes it clear that our ongoing choices lead to a final, permanent choice, at which time our decision will be forever fixed.
The modern world needs to sober up. There is a Hell and its existence is both reasonable and in conformity with a God who both loves us and respects our freedom.
If you have any non-biblical notions in this regard, consider yourself reproved. Popular or not, Hell is taught, as is the sobering notion that many prefer its darkness to the light of God’s Kingdom.
The care of the poor is very important to God. Look through your closet this week and give away what you can. Look at your financial situation and see if it is pleasing to God. The rich man was not cruel, just insensitive and unaware. How will you and I respond to a Gospel like this?
People who can’t pass interviews may not be factually incapable of working, they may have other issues that make them unemployable that they could easily overcome if they wanted to. Those people aren’t hard cases who cannot work, they’re some shade of nitwit who refuses to be the sort of people who can be trusted to work the jobs they’re applying for.
Please note the contrasting response to the landowner who asked them why they were idle: we haven’t been hired is not we don’t do good work or we aren’t eager to work.
But in our culture it has been distorted by our wealth, that even our “poor” are often among the most affluent / rich humans who’ve ever lived. I would submit that we’ve only got so many people who could work but who are ill suited to work because they want comfort without striving, they’ve got rich man’s hearts but barely have even a poor man’s skill set.
More and more they come with massive student debt for educations that by design only taught them to be nitwits (your proverbial insert here social studies for instance).
I think it refers to him still being able to pass himself off as an angel of light.
What if they hate Second Thessalonians Chapter Three Verse Ten, and insist that the New Testament is communism?
What if they intentionally conflate the crippled with the poor, and insist that verses regarding the two be merged into one?
Goes back to Paul and before I think to Isaiah.
Your comment reminds me of the bourgeois priest in the well-off congregation who every year dreaded to preach on the Gospel passage, “Woe to you rich.”
Was just saying regarding James.
Just going with James.
Jesus was talking about individual spiritual growth... not government style programs ...
Someone needs to get real here... Jesus was not a shallow white liberal eltie.
He is certainly NOT engaging in bombastic rhetoric so the "schlemeils" will "cough up some more shekels than usual to his holy cause." "His holy cause"? Indicting a man for something he didn't say --- words you yourself put in his mouth!
And obviously, you have no clue whether he's eating Filet Mignon or the cheaper cuts of macaroni.
Think about that carefully before you slander good pastors --- or good anybody.
Think as well about this as well, the prophet's words which are the first, OT reading for the "Rich Man and Lazarus" Sunday liturgy:
Reading 1 Amos 6:1a, 4-7Thus says the LORD the God of hosts:
Woe to the complacent in Zion!
Lying upon beds of ivory,
stretched comfortably on their couches,
they eat lambs taken from the flock,
and calves from the stall!
Improvising to the music of the harp,
like David, they devise their own accompaniment.
They drink wine from bowls
and anoint themselves with the best oils;
yet they are not made ill by the collapse of Joseph!
Therefore, now they shall be the first to go into exile,
and their wanton revelry shall be done away with.
`
`
“Please cite passage about satan being light to fool us. Thanks”
Not “being” Light as that is not possible. I think I used the word “imitating” the Light.
The entirety of 1 John is teaching us how to sort the imitators from the real thing.
That is satan imitating the Light. There are more and I thank you for the question. My time is tight today, but I will pray on providing a better response.
This is the reason for 1 John 4
4 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
1 John 5
7 I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Watch out that you do not lose what we[a] have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. 9 Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. 11 Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work.
Enabling the poor is worse than ignoring them.
I don't know who your Mr Pope is teaching/preaching to but it is not born again Christians...We Christians have been judged already, and found to be just...We are under grace and NOT the law...We Christians are not under bondage to feed the poor or face hell as Catholics are...
Joh_14:10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
And we have the same Father in us who is in Jesus...
It's what you people don't understand...Even tho we don't have to we want to do good...It is God in us who leads us that way...
Several months before I read 1 John 4 for the first time I had two spirits approach me as the grandparents of the woman I was working with. They had gray hair and blue eyes, thus everything appeared ok.
However, I had this big knot in my stomach, a warning that the Holy Spirit is saying “Beware.”
Suddenly the words, “Do you believe that Jesus was born in the flesh?” Came out of my mouth.
They replied, “We know Jesus.”
The words from my mouth responded, “That was not the question” and repeated the first question.
Their eyes turned from blue to black and then to red as their true nature came out.
At which time I prayed for them and they screamed in response to the Light.
This is only one of many such situations. The Bible is the truth and it has saved my sorry butt many times.
Logic does not protect us from evil as satan is quite the trickster. That intuitive feeling that women get is better at recognizing evil. But nothing beats the Holy Spirit in you doing the work.
Maybe that message should go to the Pope and the immense wealth that the RCC has and continues to gather and share it with the poor
the more one tries to help others the more one is punished
There are no poor in America.
Last week’s Gospel, the rather opaque parable of the Dishonest Steward, was followed by a few lines explaining that the Pharisees were lovers of money and took Jesus’s remarks very poorly.
“God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable to God.”
Are you refuting something Fr. Pope said here?
Just who are you identifying as "you people"?
Are you prepared to say you what is in their hearts and minds?
Sure there are. Children of absent fathers and crack-head mothers. Frail, elderly parents of thieving adult children.
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