Father Christopher Zugger

This story is part of a series of parables that Jesus teaches to his disciples: the shrewd manager, the prodigal son, warnings about divorce or causing others to sin, the costs of discipleship. This one is unique to Luke, but different in that Luke’s gospel is known as the gospel of mercy. But here the rich man is not suddenly redeemed, like the son who wasted his inheritance, but remains in the place of torment. This parable is the only one where Jesus gives someone a name, and Lazarus means God is my helper. The rich man certainly was not a helper! In the parable, Jesus makes a point of saying that Lazarus lay at the gate, so the wealthy people passed him every day – but their sin was not that they abused him, rather their sin was they simply were indifferent to him. Only the dogs took care of him by cleaning his wounds, while the people simply went by day after day.

Lazarus was carried to heaven by the angels, but the rich man, Jesus says, was buried. What a difference – one was carried by angels, the other put into the ground and that was that. Surely it was an elaborate funeral with all of the proper rituals, but it is interesting how Jesus puts it. How are we living? We can be carried by the angels here and now, by being lifted up to God through our faith, through our prayers, through our charitable actions, by how we are fulfilling our duties in a Christian manner. Or we can simply be living with all kinds of pleasures, doing whatever we want, fulfilling our duties in a manner that the world may approve of, or find interesting or entertaining. But where is that particular road leading? Not the road of the angels.

Notice that the rich man is not sorry for what he did, only afraid that his relatives, who are equally indifferent to the poor and caught up in wealth and power and entertainment, will burn in hell with him, and he commands Abraham to use Lazarus as his servant to be sent back to earth. He is still arrogant, still focused on power, still indifferent to what Lazarus endured on earth. God wants us to be brought to repentance, to be convicted in our hearts of what we do wrong, to be transformed by the gospel, by the teachings of the Church, by the power of the example of the saints.

The parable ends with these striking words: He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”  And of course, in the gospel of John, Jesus will indeed raise his friend Lazarus from the dead after four days in the grave. And notice what happens – when people go from Bethany to tell the Pharisees and priests about that miracle, they do not go out of the city to see for themselves, or to follow the Lord, but rather they plot how to destroy him.

What happens now in our culture where so many traditional teachings have been turned upside down by the media and Hollywood? When someone comes forward and re-proclaims authentic Christian teaching, we are ignored, or shouted down. People have days of rage, but not days of love or fellowship. What is the path that I am walking on? We are encouraged to walk the path of entertainment, of getting more money, of easy solutions, of anger toward whoever is the current “other.”

Christ’s path is the path of service, of radically loving, of looking at others with the eyes of a compassionate God, of choosing humility instead of power. Am I going to be lifted up by the angels? Or am I letting myself be buried and covered with the dust of the junk of a fallen sinful world? In the epistle to the Galatians, Saint Paul says that he is crucified with Christ, and that Christ lives in him. The living Christ has replaced the old Jewish law and its hundreds of commands and rules and regulations. The person of Jesus alive in me, through the sacraments, through my baptism, through my prayer, through my union with him in service and suffering and ongoing conversion – that person now fulfills the old law. We live the way we do as Catholic Christians because  Christ lived and died in a way that gives us the ultimate example as to how to live, and indeed how to die. We are living by the faith taught by Christ, preserved in the Catholic Church, through Christ who loves ME, who died for ME, and who calls us to bring others to him.

If I do this properly, then I can be lifted up by the angels here and now, and be justified through our living faith, a faith that unlike that of the rich man, is manifested in how we treat those around us, those we encounter and those we may quickly pass by in a car or on a bicycle or the bus. Saint Teresa of Avila revealed to one of her nuns that God has greater love for one soul that is aspiring to perfection – to living in such a way as to be carried by the angels – than for a thousand others are may be in a state of grace but are comfortable being imperfect and are not on fire with love for Him.

Do I want to be carried by the angels to the house of the Lord, to rest in the bosom of Abraham, to live with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the saints? Do I want to be on fire with love? Or do I want to be buried in the dust of the stuff I gave myself up to? It’s up to each one of us.