I have been studying the parable of
Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16. In case you have forgotten the parable is
about two men, one rich and Lazarus who is poor and sick. Lazarus begs from the
rich man every day but to no avail. Well both men die and Lazarus goes to
Abraham’s side and the rich man goes to a place of fire.
We naturally think that the rich man is
in hell, until you look closely. The rich man intercedes for his 5 brothers. He
says:
Luke
16:27, 28
- `Then I beg you, father [Abraham], to
send [Lazarus] to my father's house, for I have five brothers, so
that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.'
So it seems that the rich man being in
this place of fire is interceding for his 5 brothers right? Isn’t that love?
Yet we know that there is no love in hell. Therefore I thought that this place
of fire very well might be Purgatory. The rich man is in Purgatory and is
interceding on behalf of his five brothers so they might avoid this pain.
But then I read St. Catherine of Sienna,
who in her book – The Dialogue – Where God the Father is instructing her about
the spiritual life has this to say about hell and the rich man.
“If they finish their life, dying in
hatred with the guilt of mortal sin, their souls, by divine justice, remain
forever bound with the bonds of hatred, and forever obstinate in that evil, in
which, therefore, being gnawed by themselves, their pains always increase,
especially the pains of those who have been the cause of damnation to others,
as that rich man, who was damned, demonstrated to you when he begged the favor
that Lazarus might go to his brothers, who were in the world, to tell them of
his pains. This, certainly, he did not do out of love or compassion for his
brothers, for he was deprived of love and could not desire good, either for My
honor or their salvation, because, as I have already told you, the damned souls
cannot do any good to their neighbor, and they blaspheme Me, because their life
ended in hatred of Me and of virtue. But why then did he do it? He did it
because he was the eldest, and had nourished them up in the same miseries in
which he had lived, so that he was the cause of their damnation, and he saw
pain increased to himself, on account of their damnation when they should
arrive in torment together with him, to be gnawed forever by hatred, because in
hatred they finished their lives."
So
God the Father, albeit through a private revelation, interprets this verse for
us. The intercession of the rich man was selfish. He didn’t want his brothers
to come there because he had taught them to be like him and their arrival in
hell would only increase his pains.
What about the opposite of this
case, what about those who lead a good example to others here on earth.
Well
reasoning inside of this interpretation we can see that those who are a good
example to others in their holiness and good works and words will be rewarded
in heaven over and over.
I
am thinking of St. Therese of Lisieux, who isn’t known in her life on earth of
being a missionary like St. Francis Xavier. She didn’t have great visions like
St. Catherine of Sienna. She was just an obedient nun who did little things
with great love, and she wrote this down in a book.
Yet
today she is celebrated by over a billion people because of her holiness and
example. Thousands have read her book
and millions of heard of her message of the little way.
Now
imagine how the joy of St. Therese will increase as people arrive in
heaven because they have followed her
good example.
We
are not all called to be cloistered monks and nuns, and we are not all called
to be missionaries, but we are all called to be holy. When you die, what will
people say that you cared about the most?
