September 28: The Day of the Lord / El Día del Señor

As the new week unfolds, let’s not forget the importance of the “great chasm” which Jesus mentions in today’s Gospel parable (Luke 16, 19-31). It is a chasm that separated that rich man from everyone else in his life and in his world. It is a chasm that was there before he died – He just didn’t notice it. He did not notice a lot of things, until it was too late. That poor man was right there at his front door. There is no way in the world he did not know Lazarus was there. He would have had to step over him or walk around him to go in and go out. But maybe he was so walled up already in his life that he never went out. The fact of the matter is: the rich man had simply learned to look the other way. And with Jesus, that’s a big problem. 

Do we run the same risk today? Is fast-paced city life making it easier for us to look the other way? Isn’t is getting painfully easy to never notice the things or the people we don’t want to see? But those very people, who embody Lazarus in our day, are still there, and an enormous risk is that the result can be much the same for us. Lazarus and everyone like him remains invisible – especially when we look the other way. What will it take for us to see them this week, recognize their dignity, and treat them as brothers and sisters?

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El contraste entre los dos protagonistas de la parábola en Lucas 16, 19-31 es trágico. El rico se viste de púrpura y de lino. Toda su vida es lujo y ostentación. Sólo piensa en “banquetear espléndidamente cada día.” Este rico no tiene nombre pues no tiene identidad, no es nadie, y su vida vacía, vacía especialmente de compasión, es un fracaso. No se puede vivir sólo para banquetear.
 Echado en el portal de su mansión yace un mendigo hambriento, cubierto de llagas. Nadie le ayuda. Sólo unos perros se le acercan a lamer sus heridas. No posee nada, pero tiene un nombre portador de esperanza. Se llama “Lázaro,” que en Hebreo significa “Dios es mi ayuda.”
 La suerte de los dos cambia radicalmente en el momento de la muerte. El rico es enterrado, seguramente con toda solemnidad, pero es llevado al “reino de los muertos.” También muere Lázaro y nada se dice de rito funerario alguno, pero “los ángeles lo llevan al seno de Abrahán.” Con imágenes populares de su tiempo, Jesús recuerda que Dios tiene la última palabra sobre ricos y pobres.

El Señor nos está advirtiendo del peligro de las riquezas. Nos está mostrando cómo ellas alejan de Dios y llevan al egoísmo, a vivir sólo para uno mismo, sin tener en cuenta ni al prójimo, ni al final de la vida. ¿Cómo vamos a responder a su advertencia?