March 8, 2012 Thursday of the Second Week in Lent

[이안드레아]

2012년 3월 8일 사순 제2주간 목요일

제1독서

예레미야서 17,5-10
5 주님께서 이렇게 말씀하신다.
“사람에게 의지하는 자와 스러질 몸을 제힘인 양 여기는 자는 저주를 받으리라. 그의 마음이 주님에게서 떠나 있다. 6 그는 사막의 덤불과 같아, 좋은 일이 찾아드는 것도 보지 못하리라. 그는 광야의 메마른 곳에서, 인적 없는 소금 땅에서 살리라.”
7 그러나 주님을 신뢰하고 그의 신뢰를 주님께 두는 이는 복되다. 8 그는 물가에 심긴 나무와 같아, 제 뿌리를 시냇가에 뻗어 무더위가 닥쳐와도 두려움 없이, 그 잎이 푸르고, 가문 해에도 걱정 없이 줄곧 열매를 맺는다.
9 사람의 마음은 만물보다 더 교활하여 치유될 가망이 없으니, 누가 그 마음을 알리오? 10 내가 바로 마음을 살피고 속을 떠보는 주님이다. 나는 사람마다 제 길에 따라, 제 행실의 결과에 따라 갚는다.

복음

루카 16,19-31
그때에 예수님께서 바리사이들에게 말씀하셨다.
19 “어떤 부자가 있었는데, 그는 자주색 옷과 고운 아마포 옷을 입고 날마다 즐겁고 호화롭게 살았다. 20 그의 집 대문 앞에는 라자로라는 가난한 이가 종기투성이 몸으로 누워 있었다. 21 그는 부자의 식탁에서 떨어지는 것으로 배를 채우기를 간절히 바랐다. 그러나 개들까지 와서 그의 종기를 핥곤 하였다.
22 그러다 그 가난한 이가 죽자 천사들이 그를 아브라함 곁으로 데려갔다. 부자도 죽어 묻혔다. 23 부자가 저승에서 고통을 받으며 눈을 드니, 멀리 아브라함과 그의 곁에 있는 라자로가 보였다. 24 그래서 그가 소리를 질러 말하였다. ‘아브라함 할아버지, 저에게 자비를 베풀어 주십시오. 라자로를 보내시어 그 손가락 끝에 물을 찍어 제 혀를 식히게 해 주십시오. 제가 이 불길 속에서 고초를 겪고 있습니다.’
25 그러자 아브라함이 말하였다. ‘얘야, 너는 살아 있는 동안에 좋은 것들을 받았고, 라자로는 나쁜 것들을 받았음을 기억하여라. 그래서 그는 이제 여기에서 위로를 받고 너는 고초를 겪는 것이다. 26 게다가 우리와 너희 사이에는 큰 구렁이 가로놓여 있어, 여기에서 너희 쪽으로 건너가려 해도 갈 수 없고 거기에서 우리 쪽으로 건너오려 해도 올 수 없다.’
27 부자가 말하였다. ‘그렇다면 할아버지, 제발 라자로를 제 아버지 집으로 보내 주십시오. 28 저에게 다섯 형제가 있는데, 라자로가 그들에게 경고하여 그들만은 이 고통스러운 곳에 오지 않게 해 주십시오.’
29 아브라함이, ‘그들에게는 모세와 예언자들이 있으니 그들의 말을 들어야 한다.’ 하고 대답하자, 30 부자가 다시 ‘안 됩니다, 아브라함 할아버지! 죽은 이들 가운데에서 누가 가야 그들이 회개할 것입니다.’ 하였다. 31 그에게 아브라함이 이렇게 일렀다. ‘그들이 모세와 예언자들의 말을 듣지 않으면, 죽은 이들 가운데에서 누가 다시 살아나도 믿지 않을 것이다.’”

http://www.usccb.org/nab/

http://www.usccb.org/bible/reflections/

March 8, 2012

Thursday of the Second Week in Lent

Reading 1

Jer 17:5-10

Thus says the LORD:
Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings,
who seeks his strength in flesh,
whose heart turns away from the LORD.
He is like a barren bush in the desert
that enjoys no change of season,
But stands in a lava waste,
a salt and empty earth.
Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose hope is the LORD.
He is like a tree planted beside the waters
that stretches out its roots to the stream:
It fears not the heat when it comes,
its leaves stay green;
In the year of drought it shows no distress,
but still bears fruit.
More tortuous than all else is the human heart,
beyond remedy; who can understand it?
I, the LORD, alone probe the mind
and test the heart,
To reward everyone according to his ways,
according to the merit of his deeds.

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6

R. (40:5a) Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Not so, the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

Gospel

Lk 16:19-31

Jesus said to the Pharisees:
"There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen
and dined sumptuously each day.
And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,
who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps
that fell from the rich man's table.
Dogs even used to come and lick his sores.
When the poor man died,
he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham.
The rich man also died and was buried,
and from the netherworld, where he was in torment,
he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off
and Lazarus at his side.
And he cried out, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me.
Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue,
for I am suffering torment in these flames.'
Abraham replied, 'My child,
remember that you received what was good during your lifetime
while Lazarus likewise received what was bad;
but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented.
Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established
to prevent anyone from crossing
who might wish to go from our side to yours
or from your side to ours.'
He said, 'Then I beg you, father, send him
to my father's house,
for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them,
lest they too come to this place of torment.'
But Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the prophets.
Let them listen to them.'
He said, 'Oh no, father Abraham,
but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'
Then Abraham said,
'If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded
if someone should rise from the dead.'"

http://www.staygreat.com/

http://www.franciscanretreats.net/

The closing thought in yesterday’s homily was: Who else can benefit from my services that I am not now serving? And I believe this thought can be a lead-in to applying the story told in today’s Gospel to our own lives. The rich man in today’s story who is ignoring the poor beggar, Lazarus, really didn’t do anything wrong at all to get him into the predicament he’s in. It is what he didn’t do that got him in trouble when he died and was tormented by the flames while Lazarus was merrily enjoying the good life after he died. The rich man, sometimes called Divis (which means “rich man” in Latin), missed an opportunity to serve Lazarus. The opportunity was there day after day, but Divis failed to see it and act on it. I remember reading someplace or other a little phrase about hell being full of people who missed opportunities to do good. This fits our Gospel story for today.

Let’s take a moment or two to look at our goings and comings for the past couple of days – at school, church, work, at home. Have I missed any opportunities to be helpful to others, to serve them?

Let us pray today that God will help us be more aware of the needs of people we meet every day. Help me to listen to them and try not to miss any opportunities to be of help to them.

http://www.evangeli.net/gospel/gospel.html

http://www.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html

In the first reading today we have Jeremiah, the prophet, comparing how living without faith would be like living without clean water. He tries to make the people understand that life cannot go on long without one or the other. Along with other similes he explains that substitutes can replace the essentials temporarily but they will never last. Human friendship can perhaps take up God’s place: pleasures and plenty will supply for life’s disappointments: and youth will make every effort to hold off old age. But eventually friends do move away, become infirm or pass to the next life. Pleasures will succumb to some pains, medications, handicaps and occasionally even needed hospitalizations. But eventually, death overcomes us all.

“Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the Lord.”

In the second reading from Luke, Jesus tells his listeners a parable of how this actually takes place. How Dives travelled the road from riches and opulence to the pit of eternal suffering and how Lazarus having suffered through pain and privation, endured his temporal abandonment, but staying close to God, now enjoys eternal rest in Abraham’s bosom. To people who no longer put their trust in God, Jesus believes his parable will be a more effective warning than even if he sent Dives back from the dead. Why? Because as Jeremiah tells us…

“More tortuous than all else is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand it? I, the Lord, alone probe the mind and test the heart, to reward everyone according to his ways, according to the merit of his deeds.”

The idiom “more tortuous” is defined by Webster’s Dictionary meaning: “marked by twists or turns, devious.” Beginning another Lenten Season, I find how well “tortuous” applies to the many devious turns and starts and stops I’ll make in my Lenten Resolutions before I get to Easter. May the Good Lord strengthen all of us, who still put our trust in the Lord, to grow more stalwart hearts to offer the Risen Lord on Easter Sunday.

http://www.rc.net/wcc/readings/

"Lazarus was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom"

What sustains you when trials and affliction come your way? Jeremiah tells us that whoever relies on God will not be disappointed or be in want when everything around them dries up or disappears. God will not only be their consolation, but their inexhaustible source of joy as well. Jesus' parable about the afflictions of the poor man Lazarus brings home a similar point. In this story Jesus paints a dramatic scene of contrasts – riches and poverty, heaven and hell, compassion and indifference, inclusion and exclusion. We also see an abrupt and dramatic reversal of fortune. Lazarus was not only poor, but sick and unable to lift himself. He was “laid” at the gates of the rich man’s house. The dogs which licked his sores probably also stole the little bread he got for himself. Dogs in the ancient world symbolized contempt. Enduring the torment of these savage dogs only added to the poor man’s miseries and sufferings. The rich man treated the beggar with contempt and indifference, until he found his fortunes reversed at the end of his life! In God's economy, those who hold on possessively to what they have, lose it all in the end, while those who share generously receive back many times more than they gave way.

The name Lazarus means God is my help. Despite a life of misfortune and suffering, Lazarus did not lose hope in God. His eyes were set on a treasure stored up for him in heaven. The rich man, however, could not see beyond his material wealth and possessions. He not only had every thing he needed, he selfishly spent all he had on himself. He was too absorbed in what he possessed to notice the needs of those around him. He lost sight of God and the treasure of heaven because he was preoccupied with seeking happiness in material things. He served wealth rather than God. In the end the rich man became a beggar! Do you know the joy and freedom of possessing God as your true and lasting treasure? Those who put their hope and security in heaven will not be disappointed (see Hebrews 6:19)?

"Lord Jesus, you are my joy and my treasure. Make me rich in the things of heaven and give me a generous heart that I may freely share with others the spiritual and material treasures you have given to me."

Psalm 1

1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.
4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff which the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
6 for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

http://www.daily-meditations.org/index2.html

http://www.contemplative.com/weekday_readings.htm

True prayer should lead to wisdom. Wisdom is insight through divine love given by the Holy Spirit, the gift that perfects the virtue of infused love. In this wisdom, a Lazarus will always be a person. Everyone we encounter will be for us a person. Someone is a person to us when we can perceive in the other the mystery of his or hers being an image of God, another Christ. We can become so occupied in attending to ourselves in both material and spiritual ways that we never see persons. We see only opportunities for self aggrandizement for our own usefulness or we look beyond, gazing into perspectives of self-satisfaction. The rich man never saw Lazarus because he was rich in his own self-importance and his own self-satisfaction. True prayer in the Holy Spirit purifies us of this blindness. Prayer must accomplish this enlightenment since our eternal salvation depends on our attaining by the grace of Christ to this wisdom. We must attend to Lazarus and we must be willing even to become Lazarus if God should so will it.

http://goodnews.ie/calendar.php

Dives and Lazarus – Rich and Poor. We used to call the rich man Dives, but Jesus did not give any name to this character in his story: ‘dives’ is just the Latin word for ‘rich’: a translation of the Greek ‘plousios’. The poor man does have a personal name, Lazarus. (In fact Jesus had a friend called Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary.) St Augustine wrote: “Jesus kept quiet about the rich man’s name but gave the name of the poor man. The rich man’s name was well known around, but God kept quiet about it. The other’s name was lost in obscurity, but God spoke it. Please do not be surprised…. God kept quiet about the rich man’s name, because he did not find it written in heaven. He spoke the poor man’s name, because he found it written there, indeed he gave instructions for it to be written there.”

The story tells us something about riches: the rich are inclined to define themselves by what they own, not by what they are. Riches can clog up your inner being, so that you do not know who you are. Then you look out from that place of not-knowing and you see other people, but you do not really see them; you only see what they own – or do not own. Others looked through the doorway and saw a poor man there; the rich man looked and saw nobody. That is the subtlety of this story: the rich man was neither cruel nor kind to Lazarus; Lazarus was invisible to him.

There is another rich man in the gospel – this time it was factual, not a story. When Jesus invited him to follow, “he went away sorrowful, because he was very rich” (Mt 19:22). There is nothing quite like wealth for closing the ears and the mind, for deadening the conscience. After a while it also closes the eyes, and like the rich man in the story we no longer see the poor. That rich young man is never heard of again in the New Testament. He might have become a greater apostle even than Peter or John. Sahajananda, from outside the Christian tradition, wrote this about him: “The young man became very sad because he was very rich. He identified himself with his riches.... Without them he had no existence. With these riches he could not enter into the kingdom because the door to the kingdom is narrow. Not narrow in the sense of space, but in the sense that only the essential aspect of our being goes through it; all acquired things have to be left out.... This treasure can neither increase nor decrease. No thief can get there and no moth can cause its destruction.”

The story of the rich man and Lazarus is not focused on Lazarus but on the rich man. Focused on Lazarus it might mean: Put up with your lot now and you’ll be happy in the next life; you’ll even be able to watch the rich man suffering. But no, the focus is on the rich man. Jesus told this story to the rich, to their faces, as an accusation against them. He told it to the Pharisees, who as Luke said, “loved money” (16:14). It has the same import as Luke's version of the Beatitudes: “Alas for you who are rich!” (6:24).

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"ONE LIFE TO LIVE"

"If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if one should rise from the dead." 뾎uke 16:31

We can choose to go to hell. Each one of us was born with a warped, fallen nature. We possess a hard heart, "tortuous" and "beyond remedy" (Jer 17:9). We can be so hard-hearted that we are like a barren desert or a lava waste (Jer 17:6). We can be so thick-headed that someone rising from a casket doesn't even make an impression on us (Lk 16:31).

"Who can free" us from such a wretched state? (Rm 7:24) Jesus alone can probe our warped minds and hardened hearts (Jer 17:10). If we ask Him, Jesus will remove our old, hardened heart and give us a new, natural heart (Ez 36:26).

This is a critical, eternal, life-changing matter. If we choose to keep Jesus away from our heart, we'll probably also keep Him away from us forever in the isolation of hell. If we beg Jesus to take over our heart and our life, we'll thank Him forever for the privilege of spending eternity with Him in the ecstasy of heaven.

This life is the only opportunity you have to make this great choice. Don't trust in yourself but trust only in the Lord (Jer 17:7). Put your heart and your life in His hands now.

Prayer: Jesus, save me. I put all my hope in You (Jer 17:7). Never let me be parted from You.

Promise: "Happy the man who...delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on His law day and night." 뾒s 1:1, 2

Praise: St. John so identified with the lowly that he described himself as "unworthy to eat the bread of the poor."