Thursday of the Second Week of Lent
PEOPLE SUFFER. SEE THEIR NEEDS
Those who place their faith in themselves and in the means they possess are not open to God or God’s kingdom. They make themselves their own gods and adore what they have made. They adore the golden calf. They fail to see the needs of others, especially of the poor. Those who have more are not condemned because they have more, but because they don’s see the needs of those who have less. We must learn to see also the unspoken needs of the poor, especially of the humble, of those who dare not to voice out their poverty and distress.
Reading 1:Jeremiah 17:5-10
“Cursed is the strong one
who depends on mere humans,
Who thinks he can make it on muscle alone
and sets God aside as dead weight.
He’s like a tumbleweed on the prairie,
out of touch with the good earth.
He lives rootless and aimless
in a land where nothing grows.
“But blessed is the man who trusts me, God,
the woman who sticks with God.
They’re like trees replanted in Eden,
putting down roots near the rivers—
Never a worry through the hottest of summers,
never dropping a leaf,
Serene and calm through droughts,
bearing fresh fruit every season.
“The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful,
a puzzle that no one can figure out.
But I, God, search the heart
and examine the mind.
I get to the heart of the human.
I get to the root of things.
I treat them as they really are,
not as they pretend to be.”
Gospel: Luke 16:19-31
Prayer
Lord, our God,
many of us never had it so good
and so, we have become smug and self-satisfied,
happy in our own little world.
God, may our ears remain open to your Word
and our hearts to you
and to our brothers and sisters.
Do not allow us to forget you,
or to place our trust in ourselves.
Make us restless for you
through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Reflection:
9 March 2023
Luke 16:19-31
“To the hungry belongs the bread that you withhold.”
Gospel helps us to understand what it means to love. In the parable, the rich man has a sickness much greater than that of Lazarus’, who was “full of sores”: this rich man has terrible blindness because he cannot look beyond his world made of banquets and fine clothing. He cannot see beyond the door of his house where Lazarus lies. This worldliness is like a “black hole” that swallows up what is good, which extinguishes love because it consumes everything in its very self.
Pope Francis commenting on this Gospel, says: “By excluding Lazarus, the rich man has failed to take into account the Lord or his law because to ignore the poor is to despise God! Lázarus represents well the silent cry of the poor of all times and the contradiction of a world in which immense riches and resources are in the hands of few … The rich will be condemned not for their riches but for having been unable to feel compassion for the Lazaruses and to help them… God’s mercy is linked to our mercy towards our neighbour; when we ignore the poor at our doorstep, the mercy of God fails to find space in our closed hearts, and God’s mercy cannot enter. … If I do not open the door of my heart to the poor, that door also remains closed for God, and this is terrible …Remember the Magnificat of Mary: He casts the mighty from their throne, he lifted the lowly;
With this parable, Jesus teaches the essentials of compassion and the danger of riches that closes the eyes and the hearts towards the needs of our brothers and sisters.
Lent reminds us that this is the right time to convert and look for the Lazaruses who await us, for they require our helping hands. Beware of the indifference that closes the heart to such situations of poverty and marginality! Be careful not to close the door of our hearts to the much suffering of others because the only credentials before God will be our works of mercy with the poor! “Learning to look at the poor from their poverty, the sick from their illness or the marginalized from their marginalization is the goal of a well-understood charity,” says the Pope.
Let me leave you with two thoughts from Saint Basil the Great: The poor is, not the one who has no wealth, but who refuses to share his wealth. “He is so poor that he only has money.” And the food and clothing that you do not need today do not belong to you. “To the hungry belongs the bread that you withhold; and to naked man the jacket that you guard, jealousy, in your treasure box”.
“To the hungry belongs the bread that you withhold.” – Youtube