A Discourse for the 22nd Sunday After Pentecost, on the Rich Man and Lazarus

Today’s Gospel reading depicts the fate, after death, of a rich and luxury-loving reveler and of the poor, sick Lazarus. Especially remarkable and instructive is the conversation of the rich man with the forefather Abraham, whom he saw from hell, far off in the dwellings of paradise, together with the once-beggarly Lazarus. In general, today’s Gospel contains much that is instructive and edifying for us. Let us, then, with God’s help, compose a discourse on today’s Gospel, and draw from it spiritual benefit for our own souls. In this Gospel, as in a mirror, sinful mankind is depicted—especially the noble and wealthy, richly endowed by God with earthly gifts; we too may see ourselves in it. Listen. The Lord says: there was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. In this verse the words purple and fine linen are perhaps not entirely clear to you. Purple was a costly garment made of purple or crimson material, in which the kings and nobles of old customarily dressed; fine linen, likewise, was a costly, golden-hued garment made of fine, delicate thread, gathered from a certain Indian tree, or, as others say, spun from feathers; from the Hebrew, byssus means whiteness; and yet it was of a yellowish or purple color, and was as precious as gold. This means that the rich man in question loved to dress very luxuriously, to give feasts, and to live entirely for his own pleasure. But what is especially wrong in this, our own contemporary luxury-loving revelers will ask? God has given good means for life: why not, then, live for one’s own pleasure, especially when one has dear friends with whom to share one’s time? So very, very many people think, say, and do today. The pursuit of a merry life, of feasting, of finery, of a luxurious way of living, is very much in fashion today. And in order to live for pleasure, people scorn no means: neither large-scale thefts in the thousands and tens of thousands, or even in the hundreds, nor grave crimes of murder, nor various forms of deceit and cunning. Brothers! The judgment of God is truer than ours; the Lord God rightly condemned the rich man to fire, to torment, immediately after his death. He deserved this for his attachment to a luxurious and merry life, for his hardheartedness toward poor Lazarus, whom it would have been so easy for him to shelter, to comfort, to soothe. Such was the hardheartedness of the rich man, given over to pleasures, that the dogs were kinder to the sick man than he: for they came and licked his sores, while the rich man was unwilling even to throw him a single scrap, and Lazarus longed only to be filled with the crumbs falling from the rich man’s table. But can crumbs alone drive away, can they quench, hunger? O inhuman, base soul! O stony, unfeeling heart! But let us look at our own deeds: are not we too sometimes like this rich man mentioned in the Gospel? We are: we too love, at times, to dress in silk, velvet, and gold, and though we do not feast sumptuously every day, we are, on any given day, no strangers to love of pleasure; and meanwhile our own heart, too, grows coarse from these attachments, and becomes less and less sensitive to the wants, sorrows, pain, and misfortunes of our neighbors; and a criminal self-love, a desire to live for pleasure and enjoyment, takes hold of us more and more; our own soul, created in the image and likeness of God, concerns us less and less; we think and care less and less about amending our life, about cutting down the thorns of passions and evil habits that have grown up in our soul, about the good deeds by which God is well pleased. Brothers and sisters! In whomever the passion for wealth, for finery, and for fleshly pleasures rules, in him Christian love cannot dwell; one cannot serve both God and mammon (Mt 6:24). Let us, then, live in the fear of God!

But let us continue the explanation of the Gospel: «But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. Then he cried and said: father Abraham, have mercy on 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» (Lk 16:20-24). Such is the fate, after death, of the honest and the poor, of the sick who bear their condition with submission and without complaint—and such is the fate of hardhearted and pleasure-loving rich men! One is carried, immediately after death, by the Angels, into the kingdom of heaven, to enjoy blessings unspeakable by any tongue, while the other is cast down into the pit of hell, into fire, into unbearable torment. Such is the end of earthly sufferings and of earthly, sinful joys!

Let us live in the fear of God, spending our days in self-restraint, in virtue, and especially in mercy toward the poor. Let us use the generous gifts of God to us according to the Lord’s will, and not according to our own whims, remembering that we are stewards, and not masters, of the property given to us by the Lord.

But let us hear what Abraham answered the rich man. «Son», he says, «remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented» (Lk 16:25)—that is, you took your pleasure on earth without measure, forgetting God and virtue, in complete neglect of your soul, given over only to fleshly pleasures—and for this you have received a just punishment from the just God: you trampled ungratefully upon every gift of God, despised God’s love, which was leading you toward repentance, despised your neighbors; and for this you are condemned to eternal torment, while Lazarus, for his patience, for his sufferings, is now eternally comforted. Fearful is the fate of the rich man! And yet, here on earth, their lot is often to be envied: a full cup of everything for them, right up until death; and an occasion for pleasure and luxury every day. But what of their soul—that is, the soul of unmerciful, hardhearted rich men? Does God look with favor upon it? Is the grace of God in it—that true wealth of a Christian soul? Is there living faith, is there Christian hope, that support amid sorrows, deprivations, misfortunes, and sicknesses; is there Christian love, loving all, sympathizing with all, showing mercy to all? No—where there is attachment to perishable goods, there is no place for imperishable, heavenly virtue; there is no place for the grace of God. But what does Abraham say further to the rich man? — «And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us» (Lk 16:26). Here is a fearsome calamity! For the unrepentant sinner there is no hope whatsoever of passing from hell into paradise; nor can the righteous help the unrepentant; every communion, every help, ceases. A fearsome impossibility! The soul grows numb at these words! Blessed is he who, here, has laid up for himself a sufficient store of good deeds, and has ended his life with sincere repentance! After death there is no longer any place for virtue and repentance!

Let us hasten, then, let us hasten, brothers, toward repentance and doing good. Our time is still ours, by the mercy of God. But it may soon be taken from us. Let us hear what the rich man says in his despair: «then I beg you, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment» (Lk 16:27-28). Both the rich man himself, and his brothers as well, evidently did not believe that, after death, there is a fearsome and lamentable torment for sinners, and so they lived, as he did, without any care for repentance and amendment. The former rich man now felt pity for his brothers, and fear lest they too be cast into that same unbearable hellish fire; and he asks Abraham to send Lazarus to his brothers, to bear witness to the existence, after death, of fearsome torments for sinners—that is, the rich man wanted Abraham to send the dead Lazarus to his brothers to warn them. But «Abraham said to him: they have Moses and the prophets» — that is, their writings — «let them hear them. And he said: no, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent. But he said to him: if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead» (Lk 16:29-31). How many people, even today, do not believe in the torments of hell after death! They too think and say what the rich and luxury-loving reveler thought and said in his own time: who has ever been there, to tell us that there are torments of hell? There are no torments; here is the end of every pleasure and every torment; after death there is nothing. Even today many would wish that someone might rise from the dead and testify that there is a fearsome place of torment for sinners! They do not believe God the Savior Himself, who testifies to us of this in the Gospel; they do not believe the Apostles, the holy God-bearing Fathers, and imagine that they would believe a man risen from the dead! But this is impossible: even a man risen from the dead they would take for a phantom, a trick of the imagination, and would not believe him either. So then, brothers, read the word of God, listen to it, grow wise, and be saved. The Gospel is the word of God Himself: «not one iota or one tittle will pass from it till all is fulfilled» (Mt 5:18). Attend the house of God diligently; raise up your own souls here for the kingdom of God; for the temple is a nursery for souls, a school of Christian piety; be diligent in every good work; overcome your sins, amend your life; adorn yourselves with freedom from malice, with mercy, with compassion, with self-restraint, with purity and chastity; and at the end of your life you will not be left in shame, and after death you will not be given over to torments, but will rest in the bosom of the forefather, or, greater still, will be with Christ, as the Lord said to the repentant, wise thief: «today you will be with Me in paradise» (Lk 23:43). Amen.