A Gospel according to Luke 16:19-31
Jesus said to the Pharisees:
“There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen
and dined sumptuously each day.
And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,
who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps
that fell from the rich man’s table.
Dogs even used to come and lick his sores.
When the poor man died,
he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham.
The rich man also died and was buried,
and from the netherworld, where he was in torment,
he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off
and Lazarus at his side.
And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me.
Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue,
for I am suffering torment in these flames.’
Abraham replied, ‘My child,
remember that you received what was good during your lifetime
while Lazarus likewise received what was bad;
but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented.
Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established
to prevent anyone from crossing
who might wish to go from our side to yours
or from your side to ours.’
He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send him
to my father’s house,
for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them,
lest they too come to this place of torment.’
But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets.
Let them listen to them.’
He said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham,
but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
Then Abraham said,
‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded
if someone should rise from the dead.’”
REFLECTION: ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.’
There are many lessons in this parable: the rich person not caring about the poor; the last judgement: heaven or hell, etc.
I was struck by something the priest celebrating the Holy Mass said during his homily.
He was telling us that many times when he visits someone that needs the last rites, he is greeted by one or more of the dying person's children. He is usually taken to this person's bedroom, and then left alone with them.
At this, the priest calls back the adult children, and everybody in the house to pray for this person.
Father continued saying that many times he sees the pain in the dying parent's eyes. Whereas they are true believers of Christ, they never spent time teaching their children how to pray. And the pain in the parent's eyes of knowing that when their children will be in the same situation, they might not be praying at all for a "good death".
This is actually one of my fears, that I am not teaching my children what God wants me to teach them about Him.
In a world where we are super-busy, it is hard to make time for prayer. And as parents we have to balance teaching our children the faith, and not imposing it in a way that they would hate it. We still need to talk to them about our Catholicism and pray with them.
Life in a big city means a lot of driving; a lot of "dead time". We use some of that time to talk and catch up about the day. We have also called our van "our chapel on wheels", where we can take advantage of the time by praying the rosary as a family, or listen to a good podcast from EWTN or from Formed.
Another thing we do is pray as a family the PAPA prayer for priests. Our family needs the guidance of the priests, just as the rich man and his five brothers from the Gospel needed the Law and the prophets.
Let us make time and effort to teach our children about Jesus and the beauty of the Catholic Church lest we or our children end in the same place the rich man ended up for his lack of love and lack of formatio by his parents.
St Joseph, patron saint of families, fathers, the Universal Church, and of good death, pray for us.
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