DGeMs- Daily Gospel eMessage
Dear Friend in the Lord,
Empathy – Faith: In today’s Gospel, Jesus reprimanded the Pharisees with the parable of the “Rich man and Lazarus”. If they do not empathise with the poor and marginalized, they will suffer the eternal consequences after they die. Is God challenging you to be more empathetic with those who are suffering?
Fr Philip Heng, S.J.
Luke 16:19-26
Jesus said to the Pharisees: ‘There was a rich man who used to dress in purple and fine linen and feast magnificently every day. And at his gate there lay a poor man called Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to fill himself with the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even came and licked his sores.
Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. ‘In his torment in Hades he looked up and saw Abraham a long way off with Lazarus in his bosom. So he cried out, “Father Abraham, pity me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these flames.”
“My son”, Abraham replied, “remember that during your life good things came your way, just as bad things came the way of Lazarus. Now he is being comforted here while you are in agony. But that is not all: between us and you a great gulf has been fixed, to stop anyone, if he wanted to, crossing from our side to yours and to stop any crossing from your side to ours.”