25 February 2027 · Latin Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,” Luke 16:19–20
Jeremiah sets two pictures side by side. The one who trusts in mere mortals and turns his heart from the LORD “shall be like a shrub in the desert,” living in parched places where nothing good comes. But “Blessed are those who trust in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.” In Kerala we know such trees by the backwaters: in the hottest May they stay green because their roots reach the water. Then Jeremiah looks inside: the human heart is devious and hard to understand, but “I the LORD test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways.” Where are the roots of my heart? In money, in people's opinion, in my own strength, or in God?
Jesus answers with a story. A rich man, dressed in purple and fine linen, feasts every day. At his gate lies a poor man, covered with sores, longing for the scraps from the table; only the dogs come to him. The rich man is never said to be cruel. He simply does not see. The poor man has a name, Lazarus, which means God helps; the rich man has none. Both die. Lazarus is carried by the angels to Abraham's side; the rich man finds himself in torment and begs for a drop of water. Abraham reminds him: you received your good things in your lifetime; and between us and you a great chasm has been fixed. The chasm in eternity is the gate he never crossed in time. Then the rich man begs for his five brothers, and Abraham replies: “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” Lent asks us to open our eyes to the Lazarus at our gate, while there is still time, and to listen to the One who has indeed risen from the dead.
Theme: “At his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus.”
Two trees, two men, one gate, and the word that calls us while there is time.
“Blessed are those who trust in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream.” Jeremiah 17:7–8
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal;” Matthew 6:19
Apply: Name one false security you lean on, and give it to God in prayer.
“Those who oppress the poor insult their Maker, but those who are kind to the needy honor him.” Proverbs 14:31
“How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?” 1 John 3:17
Apply: Give this week's Lenten savings directly to someone in need near you.
“I the LORD test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings.” Jeremiah 17:10
“He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”” Luke 16:31
Apply: Read one chapter of the Gospel each day this week, and act on one line of it.
Trust in the Lord makes us fruitful even in drought.
Eyes opened to the poor are the beginning of eternal life.
Take-home resolution: Learn one poor person's name this week and help them.
Dear friends, Jeremiah shows us two trees. One is a shrub in the desert: the person who trusts only in human strength. The other is a tree planted by water: blessed are those who trust in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD (Jeremiah 17:7). In the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.
Then Jesus tells of a rich man who feasted sumptuously every day, and at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores (Luke 16:19–20). The rich man did not beat Lazarus. He did not chase him away. He simply did not see him. That was his sin.
Notice: the poor man has a name, Lazarus, God helps. The rich man has no name. In God's eyes the forgotten are remembered. After death the gate the rich man never crossed becomes a great chasm that cannot be crossed.
And Abraham says: if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead (Luke 16:31). Someone has risen from the dead: Jesus. Let us listen to him today, open our eyes, and cross the gate to Lazarus while there is time. Amen.
Children, Jesus told about a rich man who had lots of food but never shared with poor Lazarus at his door. Jesus wants us to see people who need help. Can you share something with someone today?
Lord God, you search the heart and know us. Root us in trust in you like a tree beside the water, open our eyes to the Lazarus at our gate, and make us listen to your word while there is time. Through Christ our Lord, who rose from the dead. Amen.
Jeremiah sets out two ways to live, two kinds of trust, in the picture of a shrub in the desert and a tree by the stream. The Gospel then shows that picture in two lives, a rich man and a poor man, on either side of one gate. Psalm 1 has the same image of a tree by the water. What matters is where the heart rests and whom the heart sees. The key words are trust, heart and gate.
Setting.
This passage is a short poem of the kind that Israel’s wise men wrote. It is very close to Psalm 1. It stands among the prophet’s words to Judah in the last troubled decades before 587 BC, when the kings looked for safety to alliances with the great powers, Egypt above all (compare Jeremiah 37:5–10).
In such a setting “mere flesh” is not an abstract phrase. It is a nation relying on an army. It also speaks to every one of us who rests his life on money, position or useful friends.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord.” (17:5)
The last line shows the real issue. Asking people for help is no sin; the sin is the heart’s turning away.
“They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream.” (17:8)
What makes the difference cannot be seen: the roots. Both plants stand in the same heat.
“in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.” (17:8)
No promise is made that drought will not come. A Kerala reader who has seen the deep-rooted trees stay green in a dry March will understand this at once.
“The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse” (17:9)
After the clear picture, the poem turns more troubling: we do not easily know which plant we are. In the Bible the heart is the center of the person and not only of the feelings. Jeremiah will hope for a day when God writes his law on the heart (31:33).
“I the Lord test the mind and search the heart,” (17:10)
This is the answer to “who can understand it?” The thought can frighten, and it can also bring relief, since the one who knows all is the one who heals.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that the heart is our hidden center, beyond the grasp of our reason and of others, and that only the Spirit of God can fathom and know it (CCC 2563). It also says that God must give us a new heart, since the human heart is heavy and hardened (CCC 1432). Lent is the season for that prayer. St Luke’s Gospel puts the same contrast on the lips of Jesus, in the blessings and woes of Luke 6:20–26.
Setting.
Only Luke has this parable. His Gospel speaks often about wealth and the poor, and the whole of chapter 16 is about money. It begins with the dishonest manager and goes on to “You cannot serve God and wealth” (16:13). Jesus is speaking to people who had scoffed at him. Luke describes them as “lovers of money” (16:14), but this was a fault found in every community, and it should not be turned into a portrait of a whole group.
Parables that end with a surprise in the next world were known in the ancient world, and many scholars think Jesus takes up a familiar kind of story. What is new is the second half, with its talk of Moses and of someone rising from the dead.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.” (16:19)
Purple was a costly dye and fine linen a luxury. The text does not say he had done anything wicked. He has not cheated or struck anyone. That is the frightening thing.
“And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,” (16:20)
The Greek verb suggests he had been put down there. He is near enough to be seen every day. The sin is what the rich man does not do about what lies at his gate. Later he will call Lazarus by name (v. 24), so he knew all along who he was.
“and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue;” (16:24)
Even now he sees Lazarus as someone to be sent on errands.
“Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed,” (16:26)
In life, a gate could have been opened at any time. Now the gap is fixed. The chasm begins as a gate that stays shut.
“If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” (16:31)
Luke’s readers know someone has risen from the dead. Miracles do not force the heart. Those who do not hear the word about the poor in Moses (for example Deuteronomy 15:7–11) will not be moved by a vision either.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism uses this parable to teach that the soul receives its reward or judgment immediately after death (CCC 1021), and, from the Lord's words on the judgment in Matthew 25, it warns that we will be separated from God if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor (CCC 1033). It sees Lazarus in the hungry and the many today who lack the bare necessities (CCC 2463). St John Chrysostom preached a whole series of sermons on this parable, and the Catechism quotes him: not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life; the goods we possess are not ours, but theirs (CCC 2446). The Second Vatican Council names the rich man as the one we must not imitate (Gaudium et Spes 27).
Does this parable mean that rich people go to hell and poor people to heaven?
No. Abraham himself, in whose arms Lazarus rests, was “very rich” (Genesis 13:2). Wealth does not condemn; blindness does. The rich man is condemned for what he did not see and did not do. Nor does the parable promise heaven simply for being poor. It says that God is near those whom others overlook. Details such as the talk across the chasm belong to the story and are not a map of the next life, though the Church holds firmly to what the parable teaches: our choices in this life have a lasting outcome (CCC 1021–1022).