Today's gospel, if you can put it that way, is one of my favorites. Jesus' parable, full of admonitions and consolation, tackles a perennial problem: the relationship between the rich and the poor.
Sensitive topic. You have to be careful about how you get your message across in a society that is among the wealthiest in the world.
Yes, we are rich. We eat at least once a day, we have a roof over our heads, we have something to wear and we have access to clean drinking water.
These conditions classify us as welfare societies. And if we break down the topic further and address existential questions (job, car, phone, savings, etc.), we already belong to the richest 5%.
Of course, it's always better to complain, to complain about the standard of living in the West, but if you look closely: we're not living badly!
The biggest problem is that we resemble the rich man in the Gospel story, who complains about social inequality and the support of the poor, he wants to live well and that's all.
The complaint of Lázár lingering in front of his gate, and his voice is the sigh of today's needy. Hundreds of millions of people are miserable to make it good for us. What an injustice! But the mess is sorted out in eternity. We do not pass on suffering and misery. Everyone is judged according to how they behaved, treated their fellow men and lived with God. Everything must be accounted for, and the confrontation will be painful for those who walk the path of the rich man. The suffering in the pits of hell is unbearable, that is why the rich man cries out for help, but there is no escape from there, no passage to the kingdom of heaven. At the end of the parable, the distraught sufferer sends a message to us as well. We need to reinterpret our lives. Even in earthly life, we must be better people and more sensitive to the problems of others!
We cannot be complacent about the ever wider opening of social scissors. We have to put things in order in our smaller environment.
To rethink our consumer habits, to help the charity organizations of the settlement, to undertake voluntary work in the service of the poor. In addition to physical and material benefits, the most important thing is prayer. To be with those who need it in our prayers. The stakes are huge: the joy of heaven or the suffering of hell! Let us believe in the one who has returned from the dead and invites us to the Father's house!
Source: Vasarnap.hu
Image: Unsplash
