Wednesday, March 11, 2009

2nd Week of Lent: Thursday

FIRST READING (Jeremiah 17:5-10)
Thus says the Lord: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit."

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it? "I the Lord search the mind and try the heart, to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings."


GOSPEL (Luke 16:19-31)
Jesus said to the Pharisees: "There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Laz'arus, full of sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

"The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Laz'arus in his bosom. And he called out, `Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Laz'arus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.'

"But Abraham said, `Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Laz'arus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.'

"And he said, `Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.'

"But Abraham said, `They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.'
"And he said, `No, father Abraham; but if some one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.'

"He said to him, `If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead.'"


REFLECTION
The story of the rich man and the beggar at the gate is so familiar that it probably has lost its power to disturb us - as surely it should. Why? Well, there is no indication in the story that the rich man had broken any of the commandments - no indication that he even realized Lazarus lay in distre outside his door. So why this terrible reversal in the life after death? Click HERE to continue reading.


PRAYER
All holy and ever-living God,
in giving us Jesus Christ to be our Saviour and Brother,
you gave us Mary, his Mother, to be our Mother also.
Grant us, we pray,
to live lives worthy of so great a Brother and so dear a Mother,
that we may come at last to you, the Father of us all,
Who lives and reigns for ever. Amen.

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