Generous Hearts Yield a Great Harvest

In today’s gospel of Luke, Jesus shares the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Interestingly the title of this parable omits the name of the rich man. We are never told whom this person was, but we are invited to his lifestyle of fine linens, lavish feasts, and presumably an entourage of people wanting to share in the ambiance of an earthly glory.

The beggar on the other hand has a name, he is a Lazarus - body filled with sores, a painful sensation of hunger and thirst, slowly dying and yet not invited to feast with the rich man and his company. Our Lord Jesus Christ describes in detail how when both men die that the angels carry Lazarus to the bosom of Abraham and is rewarded with the eternal gift of life everafter. While the rich man is casted to the netherworld and tormented for the rest of his days. As Christ continues to the parable, the rich man cries out to God for forgiveness and his pleads are to no avail. I can imagine the rich man begging for forgiveness and asking for his family to be spared from the ways he lived his past. With my Spanish speaking I am reminded of a Spanish term plegaria, a stronger form of prayer - this prayer is a call for action, suplicar para otros, to pray with great fervor for others. For where the rich man pleads, begs, and supplicates for forgiveness - he is now filled with sadness and an anguish of desperation for his family to be saved. Yet the poor beggar made his plegaria on earth and was rewarded with a heavenly existence.

Many interpretations of this parable exist: on how to be a good person on earth, giving up your riches and materials, dealing with the afterlife. Personally I take the lesson of consumption as a strong context for meaning in my own life when it comes to this gospel. What consumes or hinders my relationship from Christ? Does my consumption affect how I treat others? How can this gospel prepare me during lent?

When reading this parable I recognize that there are many obstacles to God and our relationships. I can either allow myself to be consumed by the everyday daily rush of Dallas life and work, or I can take a pause - experience the silence that God also lives in and begin to see Him through the people surrounding me daily. Perhaps a way to prepare during the lenten season is to see those consumptions as distractions to greater connections, and ultimately find God around our connections here on Earth - and spiritually connect with our lost loved ones through the communion of Christ.

“Blessed are they who hope in the Lord”(Ps 40:5a), that our hearts may always be filled with the consumption of God’s love and hope; that our Lenten journey be one of discovery of relationships that prepare us for the passion and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because “to love another person is to see the face of God.” - Victor Hugo

Author: Raul Ornelas, Counseling