Thursday of the Second Week of Lent
Why is the rich man’s punishment—eternal fire—so extreme?
This parable has a double meaning: indeed it is meant to parallel the lesson in the parable of the Sheep and the Goats in Matthew 25:40 and 45: “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did/did not do for one of these least brothers of mine, you did/did not do for me.” This meaning of today’s parable is hard to miss. But the reason why failing to care for the poor is such a damnable sin is only fully appreciated when we consider who is telling the parable: Jesus, the Son of God.
St. Paul says, “For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake he became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich,” (2 Corinthians 8:9). In other words Jesus was, before He took on human flesh, “…a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day.” We were—and are—Lazarus, poor in our sins, covered in the sores of our mortality, lying outside the gates of Heaven. Yet unlike the rich man who would step over Lazarus when going in and out of his house, the Son of God did not. “Rather,” St. Paul writes to the Philippians, “he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave…he humbled himself…” (Philippians 2:7-8).
In other words, the rich man is condemned for failing to keep Christ’s greatest commandment: “Love one another as I love you,” (John 15:12). Just as Christ put aside His majesty for our sake, becoming poor that we in our poverty might be rich, we are called to love others in the same way, choosing humility over pride, generosity over selfishness, compassion over heartlessness. Today’s parable is as much a lesson in caring for Christ in the poor as it is a retelling of the story of our own salvation; if we have any gratitude for what Christ has done for our own souls, let us not fail to express our gratitude by loving others in the same way.