who longed to eat just the scraps falling from the rich man’s table. Even dogs used to come
and lick his sores. It happened that the poor man died, and angels carried him to take his
place with Abraham. The rich man also died, and was buried. From the netherworld
where he was in torment, the rich man looked up and saw Abraham afar off, and with him
Lazarus at rest. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me, and send Lazarus, with
the tip of his finger dipped in water, to cool my tongue, for I suffer so much in this fire!’ Abraham
replied, ‘My son, remember that in your lifetime you were well-off, while the lot of Lazarus
was misfortune. Now he is in comfort, and you are in agony. But that is not all. Between your
place and ours a great chasm has been fixed, so that no one can cross over from here to you, or
from your side to us.’ The rich man implored once more, ‘Then I beg you, Father Abraham,
send Lazarus to my father’s house, where my five brothers live. Let him warn them, so that
they may not end up in this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the
prophets. Let them listen to them.’ But the rich man said, ‘No, Father Abraham; but if
someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen
to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced, even if someone rises from the dead.’”
Reflect
“A drop of water.” With too much self-focus, abundance may imply a wastage. In abundance,
we tend not to see the little things around us and we hardly see those who are in dire need of
our help. In today’s Gospel, Jesus told the parable of rich man and Lazarus. Lazarus, in
his abject condition, ate the scraps falling from the rich man’s table. The rich man was
indifferently unmindful of the condition of Lazarus. In his abundance he could not care enough,
unmindful that the scraps he took for granted were already life for Lazarus. Both of them died.
Lazarus went to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man suffered torment in the netherworld.
It is interesting to reflect that when the rich man was being tormented by fire he came to realize
the importance of a drop of water as he requested that Lazarus dip his finger in water in order
to cool his tongue. As Christians, we do not need to wait for the afterlife in order to see the
value of the little things we tend to set aside. Let us open our hearts to the people we might be
ignoring, alleviating their sufferings in the best way we can.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2024