A Discourse for the Twenty-Second Sunday: On the Rich Man and the Beggar

Beloved brethren! The world calls its amusements and pleasures innocent. It is essential for each of us to know how God looks upon them and how He judges concerning them. Each of us must, must indeed, in a time indefinite and unknown to him, depart from the brief earthly pilgrimage, enter the realm of eternity, at its threshold give an account of how he has used the limited time granted for the seeking of salvation, and finally either ascend to the dwellings of eternal blessedness for the proper use of earthly life, or be cast down eternally into hell for its misuse. This question is decided in the Gospel now read (Lk 16:19–31). God’s judgment is proclaimed in good time. Let us hasten to make our own the manner of thought taught by God, so that perverted, deceptive notions do not divert us from God-pleasing activity, and do not serve us as the beginning cause of the greatest, eternal calamities. Let us not be frivolous in determining and deciding our eternal lot! Let us concern ourselves with this most important matter with all possible attention. It demands such attention! It is worthy of such attention! Let us examine God’s judgment concerning the fleshly amusements of men, the judgment proclaimed beforehand for warning and instruction; let us direct our activity according to the will of our God, and the final judgment of God will not strike us with a sentence to eternal death. It will not strike us with this sentence, when at God’s sudden command and requirement we depart from this world, leave our very bodies in it, and with souls alone enter the realm of spirits, there to be assigned either to blessed spirits or to rejected spirits. “There was a certain rich man”, narrates the parable of the Gospel, “who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day”. Two characteristics of the rich man’s life are set forth by the Gospel for devout, soul-saving contemplation: his luxury and his devotion to pleasures. In contrast to the condition of a man abounding in earthly goods, surfeited with them, is set forth the suffering condition of the sick and poor man, tormented under the burden of every deprivation. Often these conditions, so different, live one near the other, existing in mutual material and moral relationship. And here, in the neighborhood, in one place with magnificence and well-being, dwelt, was crowded, misery. “And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell” from the rich man’s table . The rich man had no regard for the poor man. He was occupied with the concern that his feasts and pleasures should present no shortcoming, that the demands of refined taste and contemporary fashion or custom be satisfied, that the vanity of the master be satisfied, who needed to display to visitors both his wealth and what is called worldly knowledge, propriety, and manner of life, that all the fleshly desires of his guests be satisfied, that their lust be satisfied with all kinds of licentious gratification. The rich man’s servants also had no time to attend to the poor man: all their attention was concentrated on the quick and unswerving execution of the commands and orders of the master, who probably shone with genius in the field he had chosen.

Alas! every earthly condition is taken away by death, effaced as if it never existed. “The poor man died”, continues the Gospel to narrate, “and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried”. “And was buried”! only. Thus ends the career of every great one of the earth who sacrificed his life for the earth. What a cold utterance! “And was buried”. Indifferently do the heirs of temporal goods escort their master to eternity. Only for the sake of propriety, at the burial ceremony, do faces don compulsory sadness. Soon they will brighten up over a luxurious table following the burial, a table at which the passing sorrow is drowned in cups of wine and the coming joy is welcomed. Soon too will the memory of the departed die! The attention of all will soon turn exclusively to the heirs, and exclamations will be heard proclaiming them fortunate ones worthy of envy. Happiness has been bestowed by the death of the so-called loved one. “And was buried”: this is said not so much of the burial of the body in a shallow grave as of the burial of the soul in the deepest grave, in the abyss of hell. The fate of the rich man after death is told in contrast to the fate of the poor man after death.

The parable narrative of the Gospel does not end with what has been said. After what has been told, it recounts an event in the invisible world that awaits us. The rich man, “lifting up his eyes in Hades, being in torment, saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame’”. What a reversal of circumstances! Temporal prosperity has been replaced by eternal sorrow, and temporal suffering by eternal blessedness. Recently the poor man lay half-naked and festering at the gate of the rich man, desiring to satisfy the hunger tormenting him with crumbs falling from the table, not with any more significant scraps used by the servants; recently the rich man did not wish to look at the poor man, saw him in passing as if not seeing him, turned his gaze away from him, abhorring his deformity; now the poor man enjoys, is blessed; now the rich man asks that the poor man, having dipped the tip of his finger in water, touch his tongue, cool it, parched and inflamed by the flame of hell. It appears that the rich man knew the condition of the poor man well: he even knew his name. The cause of neglecting the poor man was not ignorance. “Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that in your lifetime you received good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us’”. With gentleness, humility and love Abraham answers the infernal prisoner. He does not condemn the one condemned by God, delivered to eternal torment; he does not shrink from conversation with him; not renouncing kinship by the flesh, he calls him son; he does not rebuke him, but only reminds him of the manner of his earthly life, which served as the cause of eternal blessedness for one and eternal torment for the other. Abraham speaks of the unchangeability of the states after death, adding no explanation: this is God’s ordinance, not subject to human judgment, received by faith, fully clear to God alone.

Encouraged by the merciful answer, the infernal prisoner approaches the holy patriarch with another request: “I beseech you, Father, send” Lazarus “to my father’s house, for I have five brothers; let him warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment”. This petition serves as a rebuke to inexperience in spiritual ascetic struggle. The inexperienced asks for the inexperienced a trial of the greatest magnitude: the appearance of a being from the realm of spirits, which is closed to us by God, to preserve us from deception by fallen and wicked spirits, who assume the appearance of angels of light for easier deception and destruction of men. The patriarch points out to the unfortunate the right path, the path of studying God’s Law and following it; the patriarch communicates to the one who has fallen into hell a knowledge that could have preserved him from hell, had he acquired it and used it in good time. “They have”, Abraham said, “Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them”. Knowledge provided by God’s Word is more reliable than knowledge provided even by true and holy visions. This is evident from the Second Epistle of Holy Apostle Peter. After mentioning the glorious transfiguration of the Lord on Mount Tabor, of which the Apostle was an eyewitness, he says: “We have something more reliable” (more certain) “in the prophetic word, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2 Pet 1:19).

The infernal prisoner’s deep ignorance does not understand the deep truth taught to him. He enters into contention with the patriarch, objecting: “No, Father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent”. – “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets” – was Abraham’s answer, “neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead”. For those who do not wish to become properly acquainted with God’s Law, who expend the whole of earthly life on serving sin and the world; for those who study God’s Law only in the letter, neglect its practical study, trample it by their conduct, the appearance of a blessed soul from the dwellings of Paradise will bring no benefit. Not even the resurrection of the sealed and guarded grave will awaken the ability to faith, slain by sinful life and evil will. The Lord rose, and what did the chief priests and elders of the Jews do? They bribed the Roman soldiers, posted by them at the tomb, who brought reliable news of the resurrection, so that the soldiers would hide and falsify the Lord’s resurrection. What did the soldiers do, who were deemed worthy of seeing a vision beyond their rank, who saw the angel descended from heaven with lightning descending, rolling away the stone from the tomb in which the Lord’s body was enclosed, who struck them with terror, so that they fell to the ground and became as if dead? They accept money and under its influence, despite the fearful miracle of which they were witnesses, they cover the miracle with the darkness of falsehood (Mt 28:11–15). Neither the most remarkable signs, nor terrible visions, nor the most pleasant visions produce a beneficial impression on the heart, nor provide it with salvation, if it is not directed on the path of salvation by God’s Law. But if it is illumined by this lamp, given from on high as guidance for all who wish to attain blessedness in eternity (Ps 118:105), it will attain this blessedness without the aid of visions and miracles. Numerous instances in the history of Christian ascetic struggle serve as proof of this.

The beginning cause of spiritual, eternal blessedness for man is careful study of God’s Law and living according to God’s Law; the beginning cause of spiritual, eternal calamity consists in ignorance of God’s Law, in living according to the promptings and notions of falsely-named reason, according to the impulses of will, corrupted and perverted by the state of the Fall. The unfortunate rich man evidently held perverted, false notions about himself, about his relation to possessions, to humanity, in a word, to everything. He acted from these notions, and perished. He did not attain true knowledge of God, did not know what significance man has, what the purpose of his infinite existence is, what the purpose of his temporal sojourn on earth is, what his duties are toward God, toward himself, toward his neighbors, toward the worlds, visible and invisible. Darkened by ignorance, darkened by the state of the Fall, by the example of others, by accepted customs in human society, he deemed the life of the body to be life, leaving the life of the soul without attention; he desired to develop exclusively the life of the body, providing it with all possible pleasures, employing all the powers of the soul in service to the body. Thus he dealt with his own soul, and thus he dealt with his neighbors: he neglected them. He neglected only those whom he did not use as instruments of his will and who were not helpers of this will. His possessions he recognized as his property in all respects, and himself as having the right to use this property at his pleasure. Scripture reasons differently. It calls the well-to-do only stewards of property which belongs to God and is entrusted to stewards for a time, so that they may use it according to God’s will. Both his possessions and earthly life the rich man used solely to gratify the flesh. These temporary gifts of God, by which he could have acquired eternal gifts, he cast into corruption. He feasted and luxuriated! He feasted and luxuriated not rarely, not at certain times, but daily, constantly, “feasting sumptuously every day”. He passed from one pleasure to another, constantly amusing and dispersing himself, not permitting self-examination, so that it would not reveal some sorrowful spectacle, so that no sorrowful memory would awaken, so that it would not disturb joyful disposition. In such a life God, eternity, blessedness and sufferings in it are forgotten – forgotten so deeply that they appear utterly non-existent. And many, intoxicated by life for the flesh, not only forget spiritual subjects, but begin from their intoxication to deny the existence of God, the invisible world, even their own soul. Indeed! For their sensation the existence of these subjects has ceased. They would deny even visible death itself if it were possible to deny it. They deny its significance, calling it the annihilation of man. Such a notion is reconciled with fleshly life, approves of fleshly life. One who has made this notion his own can freely “feast sumptuously every day”, fulfill all desires, trample all holiest duties, all virtues, so long as respectability and propriety are maintained in the eyes of the world. A man who has lived earthly life in this manner, estranged himself from God in time, has acquired all God-opposing qualities, having voluntarily rejected union with God, naturally departs after his death to the land consigned as a dwelling for beings rejected by God; he departs there for the rejection of God. Into the infernal prison is cast he who is alien to God, though he may not be an open malefactor.

The Gospel does not mention any virtue of the poor Lazarus; it speaks only of his suffering life and of how the angels took his soul to the portion of Paradise, called Abraham’s bosom. The holy Fathers even remark that Lazarus had sins, for which God permitted to him illness and poverty. The words spoken about him lead to such a conclusion, that he “received evil things”. A similar expression is used also about the rich man to signify that possessions were afforded to the rich man by God, not at all his property, as many mistakenly think about their possessions. In what should one seek the cause of salvation and blessedness in eternity granted to Lazarus; what was his virtue? The cause of his salvation, his virtue, was repentance. It is evident that he, like the thief crucified on the right of the Lord, knew himself worthy of punishment, gave thanks and glorified God for punishment in time, and begged for mercy in eternity. The patriarch, as we have already noted, conversing with the infernal prisoner, said nothing either about the sinfulness of this prisoner or about the righteousness of Lazarus, but only set forth the condition in eternity of the one and the other as a consequence of their earthly condition. Reproach for sinfulness delivered to eternal torment, the announcement to him of the merits of the dweller of Paradise would already be late, superfluous: they would serve only as a cause of new affliction for one struck by eternal death, which forever removes not existence itself, but the enjoyment of existence, conjoins with existence suffering, as fierce as death itself is fierce. The holy patriarch spares the one punished by God; dares not only not to condemn, but even to add his judgment to God’s judgment; he has compassion on one suffering in eternal torment as his member, as a member of humanity, saying: “Child, remember that you received good things in your lifetime, and Lazarus likewise evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish”. This means: “God gave you great possessions so that, by means of them helping those in need and distress, as God’s Law commands, you might work out your salvation; but you misused God’s gift, casting it into the filth of fleshly gratification, and for this you were cast into the abyss, into the flames of hell. Likewise to Lazarus, for the purification of his sins, God sent poverty and illness. He used them, acknowledged his sinfulness, justified and confessed God’s righteousness, and repented. He was borne by angels to the dwellings of Paradise for eternal blessedness as one who fulfilled God’s will”. The Fathers justly remark that of this virtue of Lazarus, though it is passed over in silence, it is evident from the consequences; otherwise the angels would not have appeared to him and would not have placed him in the eternal dwelling of the saints who pleased God. Niphon, bishop of Constantia in Cyprus, a man of great sanctity, once conversing with the brethren about the benefit of the soul, made mention also of the following: “There was in this city (in Constantinople, where the saint lived before his episcopate) a slave named Basil, the son of a wealthy man, a shoemaker by craft, evil in nature, a breaker of oaths, a gambler, destroying all his time in games and carnal sins, despite the admonitions of his master. By the wondrous dispensation of God’s mercy, his salvation was arranged as follows: a great famine came upon the land, and masters began to drive out their slaves on account of lack of provisions. And his master also cast out Basil. Cast out, Basil first sold his clothes to buy bread, and then began to go half-naked, begging alms. Then came winter, and he suffered greatly from the cold. At last, exhausted, he lay down on the street. Gradually the toes of his feet rotted away, and then his legs themselves were lost to him. Basil patiently bore this condition, recognizing it as punishment for his sins; he constantly repeated: \“Glory be to God for all things.\” Thus he spent two months on the street without shelter, sighing and weeping for his sins. It happened that a certain lover of Christ named Nikephoros passed by this street. He, seeing Basil suffering, ordered him to be carried to his house, where he provided him with comfort and sustenance. After the passage of two weeks, on Saturday, the sick Basil began to speak: \“Blessed is your coming, holy angels; wait a little, and we shall go.\” They said: \“No, go at once, because the Lord calls you.\” Basil answered: \“Wait for me a little, so that I may pay a debt: I borrowed ten copper coins from one of my friends and have not yet returned them; lest the devil stop me in the air because of them.\” The angels agreed to wait. Basil, having obtained the money, sent it to whom it belonged, and after this yielded up his spirit to God”.

Men, during the time of their earthly life, are given various conditions by the inscrutable judgment of God: some enjoy wealth, glory, power, health; others are poor, so insignificant in human society that anyone can wrong them; still others spend their lives in sorrows, passing from one grief to another, tormented by illnesses, exiles, humiliation. All these conditions are not accidental: God’s Providence distributes them, as problems to be solved, as lessons to be learned, so that each man in the condition in which he is placed, fulfilling God’s will, may work out his salvation. Those who bear the burden of sorrows should bear it with humility, with submission to God, knowing that it is laid upon them by God. If they are sinful, then sorrows serve as recompense in time for their sins. Through the acknowledgment of their sinfulness, through noble endurance of sorrow, they are freed from recompense in eternity. If they are innocent, then the sorrow sent or permitted, as befalling them at God’s bidding with an all-good divine purpose, prepares them for special blessedness and glory in eternity. Murmuring against sent sorrow, murmuring against God, who sent the sorrow, destroys the divine purpose of the sorrow, deprives of salvation, subjects to eternal torment.

Those to whom the stewardship of earthly goods is entrusted should especially be on guard against their misuse. Illustrious and mighty of the earth! Your calling is to be benefactors of men, and through doing good to your neighbors to be benefactors to yourselves.

Abraham has a bosom in heaven, that is, a dwelling to which he receives earthly sufferers worthy of it. His condition in heaven is like the condition which he chose for himself on earth. On earth he was rich, he received strangers, he helped the oppressed and the needy. His blessed condition in heaven was established in accordance with his virtuous living on earth. And you by such living strive for such dwellings and such a condition which then with justice you may recognize as your own possession. They will not be taken away at all, while earthly ranks and privileges, earthly wealth, all earthly goods are given only for stewardship. The Gospel calls earthly possessions “unrighteous” and “foreign”, but heavenly ones “true” and the possession of man. “If then you have not been faithful with the unrighteous mammon, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to others, who will give you what is your own?” (Lk 16:11, 12). Temporal wealth is called “unrighteous” because it is the consequence of the Fall. We would need neither money, nor protection from the elements, which we try to make magnificent, nor other aids, which pass into items of luxury, had we not been cast down from Paradise to earth, where we dwell for the briefest time given us by God’s mercy to return to the lost Paradise. Temporal wealth is called “foreign”: it itself is destroyed and constantly passes from hand to hand; it does not belong to man, serves as a reproach of his need for assistance; a reproach of his fall. Irreducible! It has not rested and does not remain in any hands; it is always given for a more or less brief term, equally brief before boundless eternity. Eternal wealth is called true as incorruptible, unchanging, always remaining the possession of him who once receives it. It is called his own to man: man is created for possessing and enjoying it; it belongs to man. To obtain the true, inalienable possession belonging to you, preserve faithfulness to God in the stewardship of the temporarily entrusted. Do not deceive yourself: do not count earthly possessions as your property! Do not deceive yourself: do not count yourself entitled to dispose of this wealth at your pleasure! Do not deceive yourself: do not count the use of this wealth for luxury and amusements as sinless! You are obliged to dispose of it as God, who entrusted you with the stewardship, commanded. Using your wealth for luxury and amusements, you trample God’s law, you deprive neighbors of what God entrusted to you to give to them. Yielding to feasts and amusements, you destroy yourselves. You enslave the spirit to the body; you stifle, kill the soul; forget about God, about eternity, lose faith itself. Developing in yourself only fleshly sensations, strengthening them with refined and excessive nutrition, constant fleshly amusements, you cannot abstain from fornication, you indulge in it insatiably. In this mortal sin you bury finally your salvation. “Woe to you”, proclaimed the Saviour, “who are rich”, who misuse your wealth: “for you have received your consolation. Woe to you that are full now, for you shall hunger. Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep” (Lk 6:24–26). – “Sell your possessions, and give alms; provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail” (Lk 12:33). Find delight in the practice of virtues! As soon as you touch the performance of them, this spiritual, holy delight will meet you, and the pleasures of the flesh will appear to you abominable. From the alms you give there will begin to appear in you living faith, by which you will see and know God by experience. It is proper to mercy to beget faith, and to faith to beget mercy. Abstinence from gratifying fleshly desires brings clarity to the mind, and the mind’s view of earth and all earthly things is changed: it is revealed to it what it had not seen before, the corruptible in the corruptible and the temporal in the temporal; from thenceforth its thoughts begin to ascend to eternity; it finds it essentially necessary to examine carefully and to study her boundless realm. “Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon” (Lk 16:9), exhorts the Gospel, calling material possessions mammon of unrighteousness, and friends the holy angels and those holy men who have already departed hence to eternity, to whom we should make ourselves like by virtuous life and participation in Divine grace during our earthly pilgrimage. “Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings” (Lk 16:9)! Truly you will be deprived, will be deprived in the fullest sense, when through the mysterious action of death you leave on earth everything that belongs to earth and is borrowed from earth, when you leave on it even your very bodies! The heavenly dwellers “will then receive you into eternal dwellings”, into Paradise! May God’s mercy grant us these longed-for dwellings for obedience to the all-holy will of God. Amen.

The Commentary

“All the rich are stewards and managers of God, and not masters. God alone is the master and lord of all good and wealth; and to whom he wills he gives it, and gives it for the common benefit. You demand an account from a steward about the money given to him, where and for what he spent it: the Lord will also demand an account from you about the wealth given to you by Him, and for every ruble which you spent it on, you will give an account to Him on the day of judgment”. Saint Tikhon of Voronezh. Vol. 14, Letter 29

The Commentary

Menaion Reader, December 23