The Rich Man and
Lazarus
There are two main characters in our Gospel today. The first actor is the rich man. Luke presents the rich man in a very
descriptive manner that highlights his economic position in the society. The color
and the kind of the clothes that he is using are symbol of prestige during that
time. The second actor is Lazarus. Luke describes Lazarus directly opposite to
the rich man economic condition. He is
at the mercy of the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. Luke’s description of the rich man and Lazarus
portray the great disparity between the poor and the rich. But at the end of the Gospel, there was a
reversal of fortune. When they both died, Lazarus was with Abraham in heaven
while the rich man was tormented in hell.
Let us examine how the reversal of fortune happened in the
Gospel. Let look at Lazarus first. What
does Lazarus want in his life? I think Lazarus did not desire to have robe of
the rich man or to live in the house of the rich man. All he was after was the
crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. Ang mga mumu mula sa hapag ng
mayamang lalaki ay sapat na para maibsan ang kanyang gutom at makaranas ng
ginhawa. Now let us bring our attention to the rich man. After his death, he suffers
torment in the flames of hell. If we
look close to the text, there was no where that mention about the rich man
doing some harm to either Lazarus or any other. He doesn’t even ask Lazarus to
leave the periphery of his house. This raises us to the question as of why the
rich man ended up in hell.
There are many way of committing sin. All sins fall in two categories;
the sins of commission and the sins of omission. The sins of commission are the
things or act that we did which are forbidden by our religious belief. For
example: stealing is a sin, but still you did the act of stealing. Therefore
you commit a sin of commission. On the other hand, the sins of omission is not
doing the thing we are ought to do. Now
if we look again on our Gospel, the rich man may not have committed any sins of
commission but his lack of initiative to improve Lazarus’ condition may well
enough to conclude that he committed a sin of omission.
Our Gospel reminds us to include in our plight the concern for the poor. It is not enough to say I have not done any harm or violence to other people. In the letter of James (2:16-18) he mentioned “If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. I really admire the Pondo ng Pinoy campaign of the Archdiocese of Manila because is not only about the little charity that we share to other people, but it is also a way of forming the faithful to make the plight of poor as part of our everyday life. Let us make our FAITH ALIVE by making a commitment to improve the life of our less fortunate brothers and sisters. MANGYARI NAWA.
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