Lent 2nd Thursday - Dives and Lazarus

Aside; 
It is interesting to find the Online 'Cornelius A Lapide'. The Latin version volumes are missing from the Library. This Commentary on 'Dives Lazarus' sample in Link below.

---- Forwarded Message -----
From: Nivard ...
Sent: Thursday, 28 February 2013, 8:19
Subject: Lent 2nd Thursday - Dives and Lazarus

Magnificat Adapted, Thur. (28 Feb 28):

“If they will not listen to Moses ...”

Scripture:  Luke 16:19-31

   Today Jesus tells us the story of the rich man and Lazarus.

   “The heart is more devious than any other thing.”

   What the rich man was looking for in fine garments and sumptuous dining, he was meant to find in the beggar on his doorstep.

   For every person that God puts on our path becomes the way to the fulfilment we seek.

  Jeremiah warns, “A curse on the man ... who turns his face from the Lord.” – that is, the one who refuses the unexpected ways God makes himself present in our life.

  Father, have mercy on us, because not in gold, not in honour, not in wealth  - but in you alone we  put our trust, through Christ our Lord."

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THE GREAT BIBLICAL COMMENTARY

OF CORNELIUS À LAPIDE

http://www.catholicapologetics.info/scripture/newtestament/Lapide.htm  

  Douay Rheims Version

Luke 16: 19-31

The parable of the unjust steward and of the rich man and Lazarus.                                                                                

29. And Abraham said to him: They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. 

30. But he said: No, father Abraham: but if one went to them from the dead, they will do penance. 

31. And he said to him: If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe, if one rise again from the dead.29. And Abraham said to him: They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. 
30. But he said: No, father Abraham: but if one went to them from the dead, they will do penance. 
31. And he said to him: If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe, if one rise again from the dead.

Ver. 29.—Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the Prophets, i.e. the writings of Moses and the Prophets, which the Scribes and Pharisees read and expound in their synagogues.

Ver. 30.—And he said, Nay, Father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. He is speaking of his own experience. For as he had been affected, so does he think it will be with his brethren.  S. Chrysostom. Titus more clearly writes, “Why does the rich man say this but because he himself had heard the prophets to little purpose, and had looked upon their teaching as untrue? Therefore he conjectures that his brethren similarly regarded them. He as much as says, ‘They argue as I once argued. Who has ever given any description of hell—who has ever returned thence? But if any one were sent to them from the dead, they would believe him, and give diligent heed to what he had to say.’”

Ver. 31.—And he said unto him, &c. They will say that Lazarus is a phantom, sent by the spirits of evil to deceive; whereas the writings of Moses and the prophets are inspired, are accepted by the Jews at the rule of faith, according to that which is written, “We have now a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place.” 2 S. Peter 1. 19.

The truth of the Patriarch’s answer is proved by the conduct of the Jews, who spoke against the raising of the other Lazarus, and the resurrection of Christ Himself, and refused to believe in Him.

So also Peter, who three years after death was recalled to life by S. Stanislaus, Bishop of Cracow, to testify concerning some land which had been sold by the king, replied to those who asked him concerning the other world, no more than this, “Ye have Moses and the prophets. I have been sent to bear witness, not to preach.”

Dives therefore obtained none of his requests, because it is written, “Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.” Prov. xxi. 13.

Morally, we learn from this parable or rather from this history,

1. That God has appointed to each his lot, and has made some rich, some poor. Let each one therefore be content with that station which God has allotted him. Let the poor, by patient endurance of want, and the rich, by the liberal relief of the poor, seek for life and happiness in the world to come. For Christ seems to have spoken this parable to enforce His teaching, “Make to yourselves fiends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations.” The rich man was not compassionate, and therefore he was rejected by Abraham and Lazarus.

2. That we must not despise the poor and afflicted, but on the contrary render all the assistance which lies in our power. For S. Gregory (Hom. 40) says, “The medicine of poverty heals those whom moral infirmity wounds, and often a pearl lies hidden in a dunghill, i.e. holiness and virtue often lie hid in an unclean body, and in abject poverty. And so S. Romula, dying of poverty and paralysis, was carried to heaven by a chorus of angels. He adds, “We find a Lazarus every day if we seek him, and even if we seek him not, we see him. Behold how importunately the poor present themselves, and make demands on us, in their turn to intercede on our behalf. We ought certainly to ask of them, yet they ask of us. Consider, whether we ought to refuse what is demanded of us when those who ask are our patrons.”

3. That the rich ought not to boast themselves in their riches, for riches endure but for a time, and death deprives men of their all. Wherefore let them not set their hearts upon their riches, but on God; and let them for the love of God use that wherewith He has prospered them for the benefit of the needy and poor.