Thursday of 2nd Week of Lent – Jer 17:5-10; Ps 1:1-4,6; Luke 16:19-31
I will leave this place and go to my father and say: ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.’ (Gospel Acclamation, Lk 5:18)
Why don’t we sing about the blessed and merciful in our acclamation? After all, they fit more into the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Wasn’t it primarily for his lack of mercy that he was suffer punishment? The cause cannot be disputed. But the dialogue with Abraham touches on the source of the hardness of heart. ” If they will not listen either to Moses or to the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead.” The rich man’s heart began to harden with insensitivity to poverty when he stopped listening.
God rarely uses extraordinary means. Yes, sometimes it enters history in a direct, jaw-dropping way, moving heaven and earth. However, He prefers a good and noble heart that retains His word and is persistent.
We delude ourselves that a sign from heaven, the voice of the Father, seeing the dead and saints will change our lives. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus dispossesses us of these illusions. You have Moses, the Prophets, the Evangelists, the Church. . . It’s enough.
How can I respond to the Word:
Perhaps a penance of a litany and one chapter of Scripture is not quite enough, to be revived?
What does the Spirit say. . .
“Lay people should expect light and spiritual power from priests. However, let them not think that their shepherds are always competent enough to have a specific solution ready for every issue that arises, especially serious ones, or that this is what they were sent to do. Rather, let them themselves, enlightened by Christian wisdom, taking into account the doctrine of the Magisterium of the Church, undertake the tasks proper to them.” (Pastoral Constitution on the Church Gaudium et Spes, 43)