If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead

 "There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day.  But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be bed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table.  Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.  So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom.  The rich man also died and was buried.  And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.  Then he cried and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.'  But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented.  And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.'  Then he said, 'I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.'  Abraham said to him, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.'  And he said, 'No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.'  But he said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.'"

- Luke 16:19-31

On Saturday, we read that Jesus taught:  "He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.  Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?  And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own?  No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon."  Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him.  And He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.  For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.  The law and prophets were until John.  And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail.  Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery."

"There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day.  But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table.  Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores."  Here is a contrast indeed, in terms of human life and the particular perspective of Jesus' place and time.  We remember that in recent readings Jesus dined in the home of one of the rulers of the Pharisees, where He taught about humility, and since that time He has been criticized as tax collectors and other sinners come to hear Him speak.  Responding to that criticism, He taught several parables, among them the parable of the Prodigal Son, who was reduced from great circumstances of personal wealth to feeding swine in a far off country, as low as one could get according to the culture, faith, and customs of the Jews.  Here in today's reading, the great contrast of this rich man and Lazarus the beggar recalls a world in which the luxuries of the Roman Empire were available to those with wealth (purple and fine linen, and sumptuous foods brought from far off via trade made possible by expanse of the Empire).  The daily existence of this rich man is extraordinary.  And then there is Lazarus, whose dream is simply to be fed with the crumbs which fell from this rich man's table.  On top of his humiliation in life, there is the further insult in that the dogs came and licked his sores.  These are not the little puppies or house dogs to which are referred as those who eat the children's crumbs under the table in the story of Jesus' encounter with the Canaanite woman (Matthew 15:21-28).  These are the dogs of the streets and fields, an entirely negative image in the minds of Jesus' contemporaries.

"The rich man also died and was buried.  And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.  The rich man also died and was buried."  My study bible explains that Abraham's bosom is heaven.  It notes that Abraham is mentioned among all the righteous because, in stark contrast to the rich man, Abraham showed hospitality to strangers (Genesis 18:1-8).  That the story Jesus tells says that the rich man . . . was buried is seen in patristic commentary as illustrating the state of his merciless soul, my study bible says, buried by the pleasures of the flesh.  It cites the commentary of St. John Chrysostom, who explains that this rich man was already buried in life by "couches, rugs, furnishings, sweet oils, perfumes, large quantities of wine, varieties of food, and flatterers."  We note also, strangely, that while Lazarus is named, the rich man is not.  This indicates that he is ultimately forgotten (see Psalm 9:6), not simply in a worldly sense, but a far more serious and profound spiritual one.

"And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.  Then he cried and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.'  But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented.  And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.'"  My study bible notes here that the rich man's appeal to Abraham as his spiritual father isn't rejected.  On the contrary, Abraham accepts the role, calling the rich man son and showing compassion even towards this man who has, essentially, built his hellish home through his own heartless behavior.  The great gulf fixed between the rich man and Lazarus isn't a geographical kind of separation.  Rather, according to my study bible, it illustrates the spiritual separation between virtue and wickedness.  The rich man is separated by his hardness of heart.  We note that the torments which the rich man is undergoing really haven't changed his heart.  My study bible points out that he still sees Lazarus as a kind of servant who exists for the sake of the rich man's own comfort.  Also illustrated in this parable we can find Christ's revelation of the communion of saints:  a man who is not even a believer calls out from Hades and converses with St. Abraham.

"Then he said, 'I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.'  Abraham said to him, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.'  And he said, 'No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.'  But he said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.'"   My study bible contrasts differing patristic opinion regarding the setting of this parable.  Some see it as taking place after the final judgment, citing punishment and award received by the two men, the rich man and Lazarus, respectively.  But others view it as set at a time after death, although before the second coming of Christ, as the rich man begs on behalf of his brothers who are still living earthly lives.  In this perspective given by Christ in the parable, my study bible says, we learn that the souls of the departed have awareness of and concern for the state of those who are still alive on earth (see 9:30-31; Matthew 2:18; 2 Maccabees 15:12-16).  Also noted here is that while the intercessions of a wicked man are heart, they avail nothing (contrast with James 5:16).  Regarding the final statement of Abraham in the last verse, my study bible quotes the commentary of St. John Chrysostom:  "The ignorance of Scripture is a great cliff and a deep abyss.  It is impossible for anyone to be without benefit if he reads continually and with attention."  Moreover, those who reject such teachings for themselves -- and we remember that Jesus is still responding to the Pharisees -- were not persuaded even when people did rise from the dead (Matthew 28:11-15; John 12:9-11). 

 If we look at the lessons from Saturday's reading (above), Jesus seems to be teaching that no matter what the type of wealth is that we possess -- whether that be a talent, or intelligence, or worldly goods, all of it is given and belongs truly to God.  Therefore it is through God's righteousness that we must desire to operate in life, even in our purely worldly-seeming activities.  How does this work exactly?  The story of the rich man and Lazarus isn't necessarily about wealth, about the haves and have-nots in a conventional sense, except in a surface reading of the story.  In actuality, the story is about our hearts, about what we understand and what we fail to understand.  The rich man fails to live his life in the bigger picture, in terms of the ways that what Jesus calls the two great commandments would teach us to live.  First, to love God with all one's heart and soul and mind, and second, to love neighbor as oneself.  The first time we see the rich man actually loving another as himself is when he thinks of his five brothers, still living on earth, still apparently considering life as the rich man does -- all about the fulfillment of selfish desire.  He stops to think, finally, that someone must warn his brothers about what they need to consider, else they will pay the price that he is.  But it's still a kind of selfishness at work, as this is extended only to those whom he thinks of as part and parcel of himself and carrying his family name.   His repentance doesn't begin to touch the recesses of his own heart, where he truly needs to reconsider his life.  The great questions of repentance after life on this earth are those I personally prefer not to speculate about.  It's a great mystery to all of us what the Judgment of God is, what is truly in another's heart, and what God has prepared for God's creatures beyond what we understand of life on worldly terms.  But this story, as my study bible points out, does tell us several things as it is given by Jesus.  There is first of all the communion of saints, as Abraham and the rich man can communicate with one another, and as the rich man can clearly see Lazarus.  Lazarus, for his part, is now happily beyond the reach of the rich man and his arrogant attitude and commands, and presumably healing from his own distressing worldly life.  Hades, in the Greek, although there is disagreement among Church Fathers regarding when this parable is set, is not synonymous with hell (or what is often referred to as Gehenna in the New Testament).  It is rather the mysterious abode of all the dead.  Therefore there may be some purpose to the torment experienced by the rich man.  Like a guilty conscience, such torture or torment may be to the point of ancient forms of worldly justice, implied in the Greek word translated as torments, in which it serves as a form of testing regarding the true disposition of the heart and the commission of a crime.  Indeed, the real "crime" or sin here is hardness of heart, a kind of willful ignorance, which is directly linked to a lack of mercy and even the capacity for reconsideration or repentance.  The true knot in this story, rather than simply a tale about proper disposition of riches, is precisely the condition of the heart and our own capacities for repentance.  Indeed, if this were merely about rules for distribution of wealth, the Pharisees would have no problem with following the appropriately set and considered rules.  In Saturday's reading (above), Jesus says to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts."  It all comes down to this, the state of the heart.  Indeed, the rich man's state of his heart is what directly determines the torments he's experiencing; it is a symbolic profile of his choice midst the energies of God.   Perhaps Lazarus' own torments and humiliation on earth served to condition his heart in an entirely different way, and thus he now experiences life in the bosom of father Abraham.  The real question is, then, at what point are we incapable of change?  How far do we go along the road of personal selfishness before we don't even know how to turn ourselves around and face another direction?  Christ's teachings on the greatest commandments don't lead us directly to a kind of repentance in which we simply fix rules of wealth distribution.  Rather, true repentance starts with the love of God.  We need a model, a communion, a relationship with what is truly good in order to become ourselves a part of that good and come to know what it is.  Perhaps, in fact, only God has the power to effect such change, through grace.  But apparently even that, at least at some mysterious level, needs our consent regarding the state of our own hearts.  From there we can may practice love of neighbor as oneself.  It is a long learning curve, but it begins with opening the heart to the one place we can find the energies which torment this man, and seek to ally ourselves with God and dwell in peace in that place, sharing this substance with others.  Where does your love of God start?  To what does it lead you?   It is a long road of learning and growth, with a far horizon always in sight.