An Instruction for the 22nd Sunday After Pentecost, on the Rich Man and Lazarus

How much instruction there is in today’s Gospel about the rich man and the poor, sick Lazarus! How much repulsive self-love, self-indulgence, vanity, and hardheartedness there is in the rich man! What a pitiable picture poor Lazarus presents: without his daily bread, sick, naked, forsaken by all, and, above all, despised by the rich man, who gave him not so much as a crumb from his own sumptuous table, not a single rag from his abundant clothing, not a single dressing from his medical supplies. The dogs, take note, the dogs were more compassionate than their own master: for they came and caressed the beggar, and licked his sores. What a fearsome, incomprehensible hardheartedness in a being created in the image of God! And yet it exists in all its ugliness even now. And, strangely, the richer a person is, the more hardhearted he generally becomes—when, it would seem, he ought instead to grow more merciful, out of gratitude to the merciful God. This, my brothers, is the bad side of wealth: it hardens a person’s heart, turns it to stone, makes it unfeeling. This is why it is so hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God: «it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God» (Mt 19:24). There are, of course, exceptions even among the rich: there are kind, compassionate, merciful ones—but such form only a small exception; very, very few of them. But see what the fate of the rich man and the poor man is after death: «the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom» — that is, into the kingdom of heaven; «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. And 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». Hear this: Lazarus is in the kingdom of heaven, while the rich man is in hell, in the flame of Gehenna, in torment; and he who himself knew no mercy in his own life now asks for mercy from Abraham and from Lazarus—and what does he ask for? Not daring to ask for much, he asks only that Abraham would send Lazarus to cool his own pleasure-loving tongue with a finger dipped in water. It seems there could be nothing smaller to ask! And yet even this is not given him; even this is refused him, by the righteousness of God: «for with the measure we now measure to our neighbors, it will be measured back to us there» (Lk 6:38). What, then, did Abraham say? This is what he said: «son!» he says, «remember that you have already received your good things in your lifetime, and Lazarus his evil things: but now he is comforted here, and you are tormented. 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». There was nothing left for the rich man to do after this. He had to submit to the righteous judgments and to suffer without any comfort at all. O, if only all whom God has endowed with wealth would remember this—especially all hardhearted and stingy rich men, and luxury-loving revelers! O, if only, instead of going, say, to spectacles and amusing themselves there with masked vanity, they would visit, at least on feast days, the sick and the poor, and show them Christian, brotherly mercy! By this they would redeem their own souls from the flame of Gehenna. But with us the most ordinary thing of all is to throw away money on our own pleasures without a second thought, and to pass by the poor with contempt.

I do not say that one must give to every poor man: some involuntarily repel giving by their own conduct; but among the unworthy there are also many worthy ones; and, besides, it is not our own business to judge them harshly; it is better to judge ourselves. But let us hear what the unfortunate rich man says: «I beg you, father», he says, «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. Abraham said to him: they have Moses and the prophets; 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 16:19-31). With this today’s Gospel ends. The rich man, tormented in the fire of Gehenna, remembered his own brothers, likewise revelers and unmerciful men. Send Lazarus, he says, to my father’s house; I have, he says, five brothers; let him assure them that there is an eternal fire for all who are unmerciful, so that they too might not come to this place of torment. And even today the rich, blinded by their own wealth and the merriments of life, do not believe that there is a hell, and drink the cup of merriment to the dregs, indulging themselves however they can. O, if only they believed this, and remembered the horrors of eternal torment! They would be content with a mere piece of bread, and would gladly give their own surplus to the poor. But they do not believe, they hear neither the Apostles nor the Prophets nor the Lord Himself, who speaks in the Gospel—to such a degree are they faithless and devoted to this present world! They say: who knows what will be beyond the grave? No one has ever come back from there to tell us what is there—whether there is torment or not. It is more likely, they say, that there is nothing at all; now, if someone were to rise from the dead and tell us of the torments there, then we would believe. What, what are you saying, you fool? You would believe a man risen from the dead, but you do not believe the Lord—the Lord Himself, who speaks in the Gospel of what will come after death, for the sinful and for the righteous alike? For this alone you deserve Gehenna, if you do not repent of your own insolence, of your own unbelief. If you do not believe the Lord Himself, if you do not believe the Evangelists and the Apostles, who speak the truth to you by the Holy Spirit, then, of course, you will not believe any risen dead man either, nor your own father, nor your brother, nor your friend. Let us, then, do good to our neighbors while we still can; let us feed our own Lazaruses—that is, our neighbors; let us clothe them; let us apply a dressing to our own Lazaruses; let us bind up their wounds; let us bury our own Lazaruses, and not allow speechless dogs to be more compassionate than we ourselves, human beings honored with reason. Amen.