“ … and from the netherworld, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side …” (Luke 16:23.)
Saint Augustine of Hippo comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed at Mass today:
“Why then, rich man, do you desire too late in hell what you never hoped for while you were enjoying your luxuries? Are you not the one who ignored the person lying at your gate? Are you not the one who in your disdain for the poor man made fun of Moses and the prophets? You refused to hold faith with a neighbor in his poverty; now you do not enjoy his good times. We should not hold faith with a poor neighbor in such a way that we hope riches are coming to him in due course, and so we keep faith with him in order to hold them with him. That is not the way at all. What is the way is in line with our Lord’s instruction, “Make friends for yourselves with the mammon of iniquity, so that they too may receive you in the eternal dwellings.” There are poor people here who have no dwellings where they themselves can receive you. Make friends of them with the mammon of iniquity, the profits that iniquity calls profits. Since there are profits that justice calls profits, they are in God’s treasury. Whoever receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward. Whoever gives one of my little ones a cup of cold water simply in the name of a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will not lose his reward.”18 He holds faith with a neighbor in his poverty, and therefore he will enjoy his good things.” (Sermon 41)
Collect
O God,
Who delight in innocence and restore it,
direct the hearts of Your servants to Yourself,
that, caught up in the fire of Your Spirit,
we may be found steadfast in faith
and effective in works.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
Who delight in innocence and restore it,
direct the hearts of Your servants to Yourself,
that, caught up in the fire of Your Spirit,
we may be found steadfast in faith
and effective in works.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen
