Today the Gospel presents us with this contrast between Deves, the rich man, and Lazarus.
And the Gospel wants to teach us about the real dangers that exist in having earthly riches, a real danger for the soul.
That is, having money enables one the possibility to indulge in vices, to indulge in the concupiscence of the eyes,
to give in to avarice, consumerism.
Consumerism, which maybe before this economic crisis was all too common.
To indulge in the concupiscence of the flesh, or as the Gospel says, to eat sumptuously every day.
And also, to easily fall into the pride of life by the honor and the flattery and the envy of others because of your riches.
In fact, St. Jerome says this.
With regard to the rich man.
He says,
It is difficult, even impossible, for those who enjoy riches here to enjoy eternal ones in the future.
Impossible for one here to fill his stomach and in the next world his soul.
Passing over from earthly pleasures to heavenly joys.
Receiving honor on earth and honor also in heaven.
So that's the first lesson.
The second lesson of the Gospel is to realize that riches do present a real danger to one's soul.
Now, on the other hand, the poor man is not blessed simply because he's poor.
But, not having the means to establish his so-called heaven here on earth,
he is more readily inclined to place his trust in God and to place his hopes in the life,
of the world to come.
So the rich man in order to save his soul,
must use his riches according to God's will.
He must practice greater mortification in denying himself all of those things that he has access to.
While the poor man can legitimately seek to improve his condition,
At the same time, with regard to those things,
all of the,
of the difficulties that he cannot change, should, with loving resignation and filled
with faith, accept it as a cross and accept it in a spirit of penance and sacrifice.
Now, each and every one of us, in a wider sense, have a part of the rich man and a part
of the poor man in us.
That is, each of us has certain talents, certain riches, gifts, abilities, skills that we can
consider riches in this world, and at the same time, we have certain limitations that
we have to deal with, certain difficulties and defects.
For example, a man may be very intelligent and have a charming personality, and for this
reason.
He may be very effective at his workplace, but at the same time, maybe he's not the best
golfer in the bunch, and so when his business crowd goes out to the golf course, that represents
a certain humiliation for him, and maybe he's colorblind and isn't able to dress well, and
again, this could be a limitation that he has to accept, lovingly accept.
So, the same principle applies, that is, in all of the riches that we have, gifts, abilities,
talents, etc., we need to use these in a way that's pleasing to God, and we need to mortify
ourselves as well, not get puffed up over these things.
And at the same time, we need to accept our limitations, the things we can't change, accept
them in a spirit of penance and sacrifice.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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Amen.