The failure of indifference
In today’s readings we hear Jesus’ classic parable of an unnamed Rich Man and a poor man named Lazarus.
In their lives on Earth, the Rich Man flaunted his wealth with magnificent clothing and daily feasts, while the poor man Lazarus spent his days laying at the gate of the Rich Man’s house, covered in sores and longing to eat the scraps from the Rich Man’s table. When each of them died, a reversal of fortune took place in the afterlife as Lazarus dwelt in a blessed state in the bosom of the Patriarch Abraham, while the Rich Man — condemned seemingly because of his indifference to his neighbor in life — burned in perpetual torment.
Reading this parable today — during this particular Lent — there does seem to be a certain poignancy to witnessing the application of God’s justice to those to whom much has been given but who do little or nothing to alleviate the physical suffering of the Lazaruses around them. However, to concentrate only on the conclusion of this parable risks losing what may be an important lesson we can draw from it.
An often-overlooked detail is that the Rich Man and Lazarus lived in close proximity to each other; Lazarus is described as literally laying at the Rich Man’s gate. The Rich Man doubtless saw Lazarus daily, yet he never thought to use his wealth to alleviate the poor man’s hardship, withholding even garbage for him to eat. It was this indifference to Lazurus’s plight — and this failure to show him mercy — that was the measure of God’s justice which condemned the Rich Man then, and it’s the same standard Christians are called to measure their actions by today.
Catholic Charities strives to meet this measure every day by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, caring for the imprisoned, and welcoming the stranger. Despite recent calumny that’s condemned the Church for the very actions the Gospel mandates, we know from Jesus’s own words the standard we are to measure our actions against in hope that we ourselves can avoid the Rich Man’s fate by ministering to all the Lazaruses we encounter every day.
Tom Dobbins Jr. is the Director of Social and Parish Engagement and Interim Director of the Department of Public & Community Engagement for Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, a Producer for the “JustLove” radio broadcast on Sirius/XM’s Catholic Channel 129, and Board Co-Chair of the National Association of Catholic Social Action and Mission (formerly, the Roundtable Association of Catholic Diocesan Social Action Directors).